PROSERPINE Tragédie lyrique in a prologue and 5 acts Composer: Jean-Baptiste Lully Librettist : Philippe Quinault First performed : Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 3 February 1680; Acadëmie royale de musique (1re salle du Palais-Royal), 16 November 1680, conducted by Lully Persephone, daughter of Demeter, was abducted from the sunny hillside where she and her companions were gathering flowers, and dragged … Continue reading 109. Proserpine (Lully)
BELLÉROPHON Tragédie lyrique in a prologue and 5 acts Composer : Jean-Baptiste Lully Libretto : Thomas Corneille & Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle First performed : Académie royale de musique, théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris, 31 January 1679 Bellérophon was one of Lully’s most successful works, performed continuously for nine months from its premiere in January to October. “I … Continue reading 108. Bellérophon (Lully)
PSYCHÉ Tragédie lyrique in 5 acts with prologue Composer : Jean-Baptiste Lully Libretto : Thomas Corneille & Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle First performed : Académie Royale de Musique (1re salle du Palais-Royal), Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 19 April 1678 We’re jumping over Isis (1677) on our journey through Lully’s operas. it’s supposed to be one of his richest scores – … Continue reading 107. Psyché (Lully)
Tragédie lyrique in a prologue and 5 acts Composer: Jean-Baptiste Lully Libretto: Philippe Quinault First performed: Académie royale de musique, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, before Louis XIV, 3 February 1675; then at the Opéra (1re salle du Palais-Royal), April 1675, conducted by the composer Thésée was one of Lully’s most enduring successes. First performed before Louis XIV in 1675, it … Continue reading 106. Thésée (Lully)
CADMUS ET HERMIONE Tragédie in 5 acts and a prologue Composer: Jean-Baptiste de Lully Librettist: Philippe Quinault First performed: Paris, jeu de paume de Bel-Air, 27 April 1673 The father of French opera was an Italian. The young Giovanni Battista Lulli accompanied Louis XIV’s cousin Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans, duchess of Montpensier, “the Grand Mademoiselle”, to France as her … Continue reading 70. Cadmus et Hermione (Lully) – revised
ALCESTE, OU LE TRIOMPHE D'ALCIDE Tragédie en musique in a prologue and 5 acts Composer : Jean-Baptiste Lully Librettist : Philippe Quinault, after Euripides’ Alcestis First performed : Théâtre du Palais-Royal, 19 January 1674, then at Saint-Germain, finally in Paris Epiphany: Lully is fun. His operas are, after all, full of lively, toe-tapping dances; brilliant choruses; and plenty … Continue reading 105. Alceste (Lully)
Composer: Claudio Monteverdi Libretto: Giovanni Francesco Busenello First performed: Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, 1643 carnival season Nero was the first historical figure to appear in an opera. He would probably have been delighted. He was, after all, an opera singer himself. Good emperors were deified after their deaths, but Nero was less divus than … Continue reading 104. L’incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi)
