Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Berlin State Opera Choir. The French Baroque opera Hippolyte et Aricie carries its audience away into a world of wonder with magnificent dance and choir scenes and an astonishing variety of musical forms. Jean-Philippe Rameau, a French contemporary of Bach and Handel, revolutionised the music of his time with radically novel, sometimes dissonant harmonics, extraordinarily colourful and complex orchestral movements, diverse rhythms and dramatic intensity.

Ólafur Elíasson, who created the set design for the opera Phaedra and the ballet Tree of Codes, is responsible for the set and costume design. In his art, he deconstructs natural phenomena and reimagines them with the use of colour, light, reflections and motion. Elíasson never approaches a work of art as an autonomous entity, but instead seeks to engage in a mutual dialogue with the audience.

Hippolyte et Aricie, Tragédie lyrique in 5 acts: 3rd version from 1757, with selected passages from the 1st version from 1733.

Cast:
- Aricie: Anna Prohaska
- Phèdre: Magdalena Kožená
- Diane: Elsa Dreisig
- Hippolyte: Reinoud Van Mechelen
- Thésée: Gyula Orendt
- Pluto, Jupiter: Peter Rose
- Tisiphone: Roman Trekel

Director, choreography: Aletta Collins
Set and light design, costumes: Ólafur Elíasson
Lighting: Olaf Freese
Chorus master: Martin Wright