Of the two love stories that unfolded at “David et Jonathas” Wednesday night, it’s hard to say which was more moving: biblical hero David’s affection for his childhood friend — or the passion Les Arts Florissants lavished on this obscure but delectable work.
For his 1688 opera, Marc-Antoine Charpentier enriched the familiar tragic plot — David’s betrayal by Jonathan’s envious father, Saul — with charming solos and chorus numbers, climaxing in David’s wrenching lament for his slain friend.
Andreas Homoki’s production reimagines the action as a contemporary clash between European and Middle Eastern cultures. Raw wooden walls converged to frame simple but meaningful movement, including flashbacks to the friends’ boyhood days, played touchingly by child actors William Lach and Kivlighan de Montebello.
As their grown-up counterparts, tenor Pascal Charbonneau tore the heart with his delicately restrained account of David’s mourning, and soprano Ana Quintans, in the male role of Jonathan, sustained magnificently a tense aria in which he decides to betray his father.
Even the vengeful Saul won sympathy in bass Neal Davies’ anguished ranting, especially in the scene where he invokes the Witch of Endor, sung by veteran Dominique Visse with an ideal balance of horror and high camp.
From William Christie’s exalted conducting to the subtly differentiated cameo roles and the impeccably transparent blend of the chorus, this “David” was as close as one is likely to hear to sheer perfection.
Even for someone seeing it for the first time, it felt like a reunion with an old friend.