This year marks the 250th anniversary from the death of Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the baroque era. The Valletta International Baroque Festival celebrates with four performances.

Charles Simon Favart’s parody of Hypolite et Aricie features exquisite puppetry.

In 1733, aged 50, Jean-Philippe Rameau composed his first opera, Hypolite et Aricie, which was considered to be something new and avant-garde at the time and which will be celebrated during this year’s edition of the Valletta International Baroque Festival.

Based on Racine’s great tragedy Phèdre, and with a libretto by Simon Joseph Pellegrin, this work broke the iron-clad rules that had been laid down by Jean Baptiste Lully during the reign of the Sun King – rules that were created to reflect the absolutism Louis XIV wanted to establish.

Luckily, the Sun King’s great-grandson, Louis XV, was made of a very different stamp. Never in the history of the world has there been an age that is more synonymous with elegance and style than throughout his reign, and it was in this world that Rameau’s first opera was premiered at the Palais Royale, Parisian home of the Duc d’Orleans, the King’s cousin.

So successful was this new style that, in 1742, Charles Simon Favart could not resist creating a parody of this roaring success. Favart, the son of a patissier from Reims, excelled in this curious genre; he created, among many others, popular parodies of Pergolesi’s Serva Padrona and what is probably Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, calling it, irreverently, Les Indes Dansantes.

In the case of Hypolite, the opera was subtitled as ou la Belle-Mère Amoureuse, which changes the character of Phaedra from a vengeful Potiphar’s wife to a bawdy personality, rather like the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Diana, the stern and cold virgin huntress, is now a smiling and voluptuous Venus.

The actual Hypolite et Aricie is a strange mix of mythology and domesticity. The Glyndebourne Festival production staged last July was pretty controversial, with open fridges and abattoirs as backdrops.

Favart’s parody of Hypolite et Aricie, featuring exquisite puppetry, will be performed today at 5pm and tomorrow in a special performance for schoolchildren at the Manoel Theatre.

The second Rameau performance, Galerie de Portraits, takes place on Thursday and will feature harpsichordist Beatrice Martin with Les Folies Françoises performing at Ta’ Ġieżu church.

Founded in 2000, Les Folies Françoises have earned considerable experience with great baroque formations and won major prizes both in France and abroad.

The ensemble, conducted by violinist Patrick Cohën-Akenine, performs in the same spirit of freedom, plurality and creativity as the musicians of the Grand Siècle.

On January 23, at the Manoel Theatre, Die Kölner Akademie from Germany will perform the third Rameau-inspired concert, entitled Airs Enchantee.

Based in Cologne, Die Kölner Akademie is a unique ensemble that seeks to deliver authentic baroque experiences. It achieves this through its repertoire and through the use of historical seating plans, critical editions and the proper instrumentation for each work.

The Baroque Festival will come to an end with the fourth performance of Rameau works on January 26 at the President’s Palace, Valletta, where Les Bougies Baroques will perform music from the operas of Rameau.

Conducted by Ian Peter Bugeja on the harpsichord, Villains and Lovers will feature five, young, talented singers – Nicola Said, Claudia Tabone, Clare Ghigo, Cenk Karaferya and Justin Burwood – in a unique concert of instrumental and vocal music.

Founded in November 2012, Les Bougies Baroques is the only international vocal and period instrument ensemble that is headed by a Maltese conductor-harpsichordist. The ensemble represents the new generation of music-making in the baroque spirit.

www.vallettabaroquefestival.com.mt