Les Fêtes de lHymen et de lAmour : 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 Fêtes de l’Hymen et de l’Amour was performed on 15 March 1747on the occasion of the second marriage of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand de Bourbon and Maria Josepha of Saxony in the Manège de la Grande Écurie in Versailles. This second collaboration between Rameau and Cahusac makesuse of the “ballet héroïque” genre, usually known today as “opéra-ballet” based on various story lines which run independently of each other. The score is based on a libretto inspiredbyEgyptian mythology and freemasonry.

Rameau's “Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour” was long considered second-rate because its première was associated with a political event. Yet this balletabounds in novel dramaturgical effects that foreshadow his later operas, such as “Zaïs”, “Zoroastre” and “Les Boréades”. Working together with his librettist Cahusac, Rameau soughtto 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 overflowsits banks (an impressive ten-voice double chorus with solo voices and orchestra) and the sextet from “Aruéris”, a scoring found nowhere else in his œuvre.

For the first time, this scholarly-criticaledition of “Les Fêtes 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. Asmost of the performance material for the première has vanished, this edition is based on the version prepared for the Académie Royale de Musique in 1748.