Jean-Philippe Rameau Essentials

This French Baroque composer was an experimentalist of his day, pushing harmony beyond the norms inherited from predecessors like Lully. He collaborated repeatedly with Voltaire (while famously quarreling with other philosophes) and was a leading music theorist, but the strength of Rameau's operas and keyboard works is what cemented his reputation. With the success of the period performance movement, it's now possible for ensembles to mount productions of his operas that once languished as obscurities. Brush up on the Rameau renaissance with this selection of his finest works.