RAMEAU’S OPERAS Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) was one of the most important French composers of the late Baroque period was best known today for his harpsichord music, operas, and works in other theatrical genres but in his lifetime also famous as a music theorist practically unknown before the age of 40 in his fifties and sixties, he wrote the operas and ballets that made him famous from his father, an organist, he received his first and, as far as we know, only formal musical instruction his Traite de l’harmonie (Treatise on Harmony), published in 1722, quickly won him renown as a theorist Major Works Hippolyte et Aricie Castor et Pollux Dardanus Zoroastre Les Boreades And six other operas , Les Indes galantes and six opera-ballets , 7 ballets, harpsichord, trio sonatas, cantatas, and motets. Hippolyte et Aricie (October 1, 1733) took the traditional form of tragedie en musique with an allegorical prologue followed by five acts libretto by Simon-Joseph Pellegrin Rameau’s first opera at age 50 was produced in Paris premiered to great controversy by the Academie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal established Rameau’s reputation as a composer caused vehement confrontations on the street of Paris CASTOR ET POLLUX (October 24, 1737) libretto by Pierre-Joseph Bernard took the form tragedie en musique in a prologue and five acts instrumentation: voices, mixed chorus, and orchestra contained grand divertissement in each act used ballet, shimmering homophonic choruses, dei ex machina, and mythological and magical characters premiered at Paris Opera in Palais-Royal, Paris was the brilliant success of the Paris Opera in 1754 was often considered his masterpiece DardaNUs (November 19, 1739) libretto by Charles-Antoine Le Clerc de La Bruere took the form tragedie en musique in a prologue and five acts instrumentation: 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, timpani and other percussion, strings (with divided violas), harpsichord premiered at Paris Opera in Palais-Royal, Paris caused a public controversy at the time of its premiere was a less-than-spectacular success at its premiere, and underwent at least two excessive revisions Zoroastre (December 5, 1749) libretto by Louis de Cahusac instrumentation: orchestra, chorus, and soloists premiered at Paris Opera in Palais-Royal, Paris was the fourth of Rameau’s tragedies en musique to be staged and the last to appear during the composer’s own lifetime Seven years after its premiere had met a lukewarm reception, it was in a heavily revised version in which, on January 19, 1756, the work was a great success and this is the version generally heard today Les Boreades libretto by Louis de Cahusac instrumentation: voices and orchestra Rameau composed this dramatic work in the early 1760s, probably completing it in 1763 composed when he was nearly eighty, but there’s no known date of a performance in Rameau’s lifetime it is now believed that this work was probably designed for private performance in 1763 was finally staged for the first time more than two centuries after Rameau’s death world premiere was given at the festival in Aix-en Provence in July 1982, in a version conducted by John Eliot Gardiner Rameau’s Impact .