Opéra Royal
Gilles ALONSO

Versailles, the sun of Yvelines

Opéra Royal – Rameau: Ramire’s Festivities

78000 Versailles

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A ballet based on a libretto by Voltaire, first performed at Versailles in 1745.

Voltaire and Rameau had already collaborated on La Princesse de Navarre, which premiered in early 1745. The court asked them to rework this sumptuous comedy-ballet into a one-act ballet, but the two men had no time - they were preparing Le Temple de la Gloire - and entrusted the finalisation of the adaptation to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. ‘You bring together, sir, two talents that have always been separated until now’, Voltaire wrote to him. ‘These are already two good reasons for me to esteem you and to seek to love you. The famous falling out would come later. For the time being, Rousseau added a few recitatives and arias that Rameau would later revise. On 22 December 1745, the court discovered a work depicting a captive Spanish princess to whom one of her captors offers superb entertainment. It was a work on which three of the most brilliant minds of the 18th century collaborated.

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Versailles, the sun of Yvelines

Opéra Royal

Place d'Armes Château de Versailles

78000 Versailles

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