Ballet héroïque in a prologue and 3 acts-With a brief foreword (Fr/Eng) containing salient information on the genesis of the work the synopsis and the edition. Les F'tes de l Hymen et de l Amour was performed on 15 March 1747 on the occasion of the second marriage of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand de Bourbon and Maria Josepha of Saxony in the Man'ge de la Grande 'curie in Versailles. This second collaboration between Rameau and Cahusac makes use of the ballet h'ro'que genre usually known today as op'ra-ballet based on various story lines which run independently of each other. The score is based on a libretto inspired byEgyptian mythology and freemasonry. Rameau's Les F'tes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour was long considered second-rate because its premi're was associated with a political event. Yet this ballet abounds in novel dramaturgical effects that foreshadow his later operas such as Za's Zoroastre and Les Bor'ades . Working together with his librettist Cahusac Rameau sought to weave the dance numbers choruses and stage machinery more tightly into the main plot. He also experimented with stylistic devices unique to this work the most famous being unquestionably the scene in which the Nile overflows its banks (an impressive ten-voice double chorus with solo voices and orchestra) and the sextet from Aru'ris a scoring found nowhere else in his uvre. For the first time this scholarly-critical edition of Les F'tes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour presents a reference version of the work that is based on all the major sources for both the libretto and the music including two recent musical discoveries. As most of the performance material for the premi're has vanished this edition is based on the version prepared for the Acad'mie Royale de Musique in 1748.
