Comédie-ballet in three Acts. Par RAMEAU JEAN-PHILIPPE. This edition presents a further dramatic jewel for the stage by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It comes with a vocal score for study and rehearsals as well as with a compilation of the purely instrumental parts for performance as a suite in the concert hall.
In view of the wealth of the work’s musical treasures and the stylistic innovations – similar to the “Boréades” – the rather frosty reception of the premiere series in the spring of 1760 seems completely incomprehensible to us today. It led to this Comédie ballet not being performed until well into the 20th century. The story that the ballet tells is based on a fable by La Fontaine, “Le Petit chien qui secoue de l’argent et des pierreries” (i.e. “The little dog who shakes silver and stones”). In medieval Veneto, the guardian Anselme undermines the love affairs of his ward Argies. Scenes of tragic expression are contrasted with folk-comic ones: and last but not least, the sexually ambiguous fairy Manto may have caused difficulties for the bold work at the Paris Opéra.
The critical new edition published as part of the “Opera omnia Rameau” series offers the final version, supplemented in the appendix by the variants of the original version. Since “Les Paladins” remained unpublished during Rameau’s lifetime and was also not included in the “Œuvres complètes”, this is the first edition of the work. It satisfies both scholarly demand and the practical needs of musicians./ Répertoire / Chant et Piano
