SKU: BA.BA08857

ISBN 9790006558209. 33.5 x 25.7 cm inches. Text Language: French. Preface: Sylvie Bouissou. Louis de Cahusac.

The opera “Naïs” was premiered on 22 April 1749 at the Acadmie royale in the Palais-Royal, Paris, in celebration of the signing of the so-called Treaty of Aachen. It was revived again in August 1764 shortly before Rameau’s death and achieved great success as the “opera of peace,” even though it did not appear in print during the composer’s lifetime.

In numerous arias Rameau provides his singers ample opportunity to shine, while he reveals his orchestral mastery, in particular in the chaconne and the various other ballets.

The work appears here for the first time in a vocal score with a keyboard reduction. The reduction is by François Saint-Yves on the basis of the new critical edition by Pascal Dencheau which is part of Opera Omnia Rameau edited by Sylvie Bouissou.

This edition is the result of a meticulous comparison of all known musical sources. In the main section, it presents the version that Rameau approved for the performances of 1749. The appendix contains those passages that the composer cut during the rehearsals in 1749 and all changes that he undertook for the 1764 revival.

About Barenreiter Urtext

SKU: BA.BA08858

ISBN 9790006523368. 33.5 x 25.5 cm inches. Text Language: French. Preface: Sylvie Bouissou. Louis de Cahusac.

Rameau's “Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour” was long considered second-rate because its première was associated with a political event. Yet this ballet abounds in novel dramaturgical effects that foreshadow his later operas, such as “Zaïs”, “Zoroastre” and “Les Borades”. Working together with his librettist Cahusac, Rameau sought to weave the dance numbers, choruses and stage machinery more tightly into the main plot. He also experimented with stylistic devices unique to this work, the most famous being unquestionably the scene in which the Nile overflows its banks (an impressive ten-voice double chorus with solo voices and orchestra) and the sextet from “Aruris”, a scoring found nowhere else in his uvre.

For the first time, this scholarly-critical edition of “Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour” presents a reference version of the work that is based on all the major sources for both the libretto and the music, including two recent musical discoveries. As most of the performance material for the première has vanished, our edition is based on the version prepared for the Acadmie Royale de Musique in 1748.

About Barenreiter Urtext

SKU: BA.BA08854

ISBN 9790006527915. 33.7 x 25.8 cm inches. Text Language: French. Preface: Bouissou, Sylvie / Davy-Rigaux, Cécile / Herlin, Denis. Text: Leclerc de La Bruère, Charles-Antoine.

The first version of “Dardanus”, which was performed at the end of 1739, was composed apparently in only six months and marks a particularly productive phase in Rameau’s career. In a period of only six years five of his major works were performed at the Acadmie Royale de Musique in Paris.
The theme is taken from Greek mythology: The opera describes the war between Teucer (the future founder of Troy), his Phrygian people and the army of Dardanus.

About Barenreiter Urtext