“Is one ever tired of laughing?” The Muse of Comedy asks in Jean-Joseph Mouret’s “Les Fêtes de Thalie.” It’s not a question one hears very often in the context of opera.
But if there is an argument for the place of comedy in opera, Mouret effectively made it in 1714 with his relentlessly cheeky opéra-ballet. And if there’s a compelling way to present that argument, it’s Opera Lafayette’s tickling modern premiere, onstage for one more night at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater (before a last splash in NYC).
