Rameau: Platée
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- Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Editor: Elizabeth Bartlet
- Instrumentation: Opera
- Work: Platée, RCT 53
- Work Language: French
- ISMN:
- Size: 7.5 x 10.6 inches
- Pages: 352
- Urtext / Critical Edition
Description
Platée was written to a libretto by Jacques Autreau that Rameau allowed to be revised for his purposes by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville, above all to highlight its comic effects.
In the form of a grotesquerie, we witness Jupiter curing his wife Juno of jealousy. He feigns a wedding celebration with the ugly swamp-nymph Platée . When Juno arrives she has to admit, in view of such a ridiculous rival, that her suspicions were unwarranted.
The work was first performed in Versailles in 1745 at the wedding of the Dauphin Louis with Maria Theresia of Spain . The performance was a failure, however, for the audience considered the rough-hewn comedy and scurrilous characters out of place at a wedding.
It was not until 1749, in Paris, that Platée achieved its breakthrough and became Rameau's greatest success to date. Another version with altered text was performed from 1754 onwards.
Rameau: Platée
