Opéra Royal
Gilles ALONSO

Versailles, the sun of Yvelines

Opéra Royal – Rameau : Pygmalion

78000 Versailles

  • Artistic performance

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Pygmalion, an absolute masterpiece, remains Rameau's most frequently performed work in the second half of the 18th century.

As was customary at the time, we wanted to build a programme of fragments and thus associate another piece written at the same time by a master neglected by the history of music: Pierre Iso's Zémide. This ballet act premiered in 1745 at the Académie Royale de Musique. The rediscovery of this piece won us over because of the quality of the music and its subject matter.

The short, one-act format often has a pastoral dimension, but not always, and composers could build up a highly diverse world of sound in a very short space of time, with contrasting passages. Rameau even went so far as to turn it into programme music, evoking the sound of the artist's chisel strokes in his sculpture.


The subjects are generally taken from the mythology of Ovid or Virgil. The tone is generally light, but with occasional moments of lively tension. As the format is very short, the tension is brief and the relaxation always comes at the end. The pastoral aspect is there, but there are also moments of reflection on politics, for example, which echo the thinking of the time. All the arts are involved: music, dance, poetry, philosophy.


Reinoud Van Mechelen

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Versailles, the sun of Yvelines

Château de Versailles (Salon d'Hercule)

Place d'armes

78000 Versailles

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