This strange work, set in 13th-century India, centers on the Princely ruler Ratan-Sen and his beautiful wife, Padmavati. When the cruel Mogul ruler of Delhi, Alaouddin, arrives with his army, he sees Padmavati, and when she unveils at his request, he falls in love with her and demands that she be his. Ratan-Sen refuses and is killed. Rather than giving in to Alaouddin, Padmavati joins her husband on his funeral pyre.
Roussel’s score is exotic and colorful and makes great use of a large orchestra and chorus; indeed there is as much purely instrumental and choral music as there is solo singing in this work (it’s almost constructed like one of Rameau’s opera-ballets), and both orchestra and chorus are superb. Nicolai Gedda is the benevolent Ratan-Sen, and he sings with authority and sensitivity; Marilyn Horne is the warm-timbred, alluring Padmavati, and José van Dam menaces as Alaouddin. No libretto is included but a track-by-track synopsis suffices. This is a fascinating work, in a splendid performance.
