Celebration of Louis XV

In 1749, Mondonville still had everything to prove: his career, launched a few years earlier, had already made him a potential rival to Rameau. This new heroic ballet was only his second lyrical piece, but what a triumph, the most dazzling of his entire career! Here he is, surpassing everything in his path, with over thirty-five consecutive performances and revivals spanning four decades! The festivities and entertainments of a Carnival taking place on Parnassus, where various gods frolic, form the whimsical storyline of this work: “This piece is of a singular genius and does not resemble anything that has appeared on the lyrical stage […] if the author has fulfilled the intention he had set for himself to depict the amusements and conversations of Carnival, there is little to reproach him for.” (Mercure de France). Dedicated to the Marquise de Pompadour, muse of the Arts and all-powerful favorite of the King, this Carnival is nothing but playfulness and excessive gallantry, as it should be…

Ballet héroïque in a prologue and three acts to a libretto by Jean-Louis Fuzelier, premiered at the Académie royale de musique in Paris in 1749 and dedicated to Madame la Marquise de Pompadour.