Atys (Lully)

To my mind, there is no musical ensemble responsible for more exquisite productions than William Christie's Les Arts Florissants. The ensemble has a head start by dedicating itself to Baroque music, but it maintains that lead by attending to every detail so that the whole is as close to perfect as possible.
This year, LAF and Opera Comique restaged their 1987 production of Lully's Atys.
The court of King Louis XIV birthed French opera in the middle of the 17th century, and the man most responsible for its development was Jean-Baptiste Lully, a musician and dancer from a working-class Florentine family. Under the king's oversight, Lully developed tragedies en musique incorporating highly stylized dance and costumes into the opera. Atys is one of his earliest productions, its subject matter chosen by the king.
The story of Atys comes from Ovid, as retold by Philippe Quinault.
Highly recommend.

The Faerie Queen (Henry Purcell)

Exquisite productions of The Faerie Queen are no easy feat. Les Arts Florissants demonstrates just how rewarding the task can be in tonight's complex tapestry of drama, music, dance, costumes and sets. The whole production--all four hours (with intermission long enough to tune two harpsichords)--was enchanting and breathtaking. At the end, I could have easily set myself back down and watched it all over again.

And if the performance itself were not enough, Christie and company closed the curtain call by singing love lyrics to the audience and cascading red paper petals onto the audience. What a wonderful experience!

I don't know if I'll ever have an experience to match this one.

Highly recommend.