Thesée, which premiered at the court theater at St. Germain-en-laye on January 11, 1675, was Jean-Baptiste Lully's third tragédie lyrique created in collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault. As in most of his libretti for Lully, Quinault combines a plot based on a classical source (an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses) with references to contemporary events. The Prologue alludes to Louis XIV's personal leadership in the military engagements in the Alsace (along the French/German border). The juxtaposition of Venus' entreaties for pleasure with Mars' call to arms reflects a period of unease during which the French armies were in retreat from the …
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Descriptive information to help identify this score.
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Titles
Main Title:
Thesee : tragédie
Uniform Title:
Thésée
Added Title:
Metamorphoses
Description
Thesée, which premiered at the court theater at St. Germain-en-laye on January 11, 1675, was Jean-Baptiste Lully's third tragédie lyrique created in collaboration with librettist Philippe Quinault. As in most of his libretti for Lully, Quinault combines a plot based on a classical source (an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses) with references to contemporary events. The Prologue alludes to Louis XIV's personal leadership in the military engagements in the Alsace (along the French/German border). The juxtaposition of Venus' entreaties for pleasure with Mars' call to arms reflects a period of unease during which the French armies were in retreat from the armies of the Elector of Brandenburg. This resulted in the unique joining of songs of love with songs of war and victory.
This score is part of the following collections of related materials.
Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection
The Jean-Baptiste Lully Collection includes almost 30 rare 17th and 18th-century scores of operas and ballets by the 17th-century French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and his sons.
The Virtual Music Rare Book Room is composed primarily of digitized materials held in the UNT Music Library's Edna Mae Sandborn Music Rare Book Room. The collection is particularly strong in eighteenth-century French opera, due in large part to the influence of musicologist Lloyd Hibberd on the development of the collection.
