Lully’s second opera, Alceste or The Triumph of Alcide, was first performed in January 1674. With Cadmus et Hermione the previous year, he had gifted the first lyric tragedy to Louis XIV, whetting the royal appetite. Then came Alceste, Lully’s first masterpiece. The king was won over from the start: he asked that rehearsals take place at Versailles and was so enthusiastic that “the king declared that if he were in Paris during the performances, he would go to hear them every evening”.

The genius of Lully and his librettist Quinault lay in expressing love and power in a way that could not fail to captivate the young king: the beautiful Alceste, promised to the glorious king Admete, is desired by Hercules posing as Alcide. Fatally wounded in combat, King Admete can only be saved if someone else takes his place in the Underworld. Alceste sacrifices herself for love. Alcide/Hercules promised Admete that he will bring Alceste back from the Underworld on the condition that she become his. Upon returning from the Underworld, Alcide/Hercules is so moved by the lovers’ farewell that he renounces Alceste and allows her to return to Admete.

First part: 1h20

Intermission 

Second part: 1h13

Lyric tragedy in five acts with prologue to a libretto by Philippe Quinault, premièred at the Jeu de Paume de Bel-Air in Paris in 1674.

Concert in French with French and English surtitles.