Les fêtes de Polymnie


Les fêtes de Polymnie is an opéra-ballet in three entrées and a prologue by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on 12 October 1745 at the Opéra, Paris, and is set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac. The piece was written to celebrate the French victory at the Battle of Fontenoy in the War of the Austrian Succession. It was revived at the same venue on 21 August 1753.
Neither Cuthbert Girdlestone nor Graham Sadler consider this among Rameau's finest works, though both remark on the originality of its overture, which breaks the traditional Lullian mould common to French overtures up to that time.

Roles

Information taken from the site Rameau2014.fr.

Synopsis

The prologue, Le temple de Mémoire, describes the victory of Fontenoy in allegorical fashion. The first entrée is entitled La fable and depicts the marriage of Hercules and Hebe, the goddess of youth. The second entrée, L'histoire, tells the story of the Hellenistic king of Syria Seleucus I Nicator, who gives up his fiancée Stratonice when he learns his son Antiochus I Soter is passionately in love with her. The third and final entrée is called La féerie and is set in the Middle East. Through her love for him, Argélie redeems Zimès from the power of the evil fairy Alcine.

Recording