Baerenreiter Verlag Les Fetes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour Rct 38 - Rameau - Score, Anthology, Urtext Edition - Orchestra Les Fetes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour Rct 38 - Rameau - Score, Anthology, Urtext Edition - Orchestra

Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau
Editor: Thomas Soury
Format: Score, Anthology, Urtext edition
Instrumentation: Orchestra

Rameau's "Les Fetes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour" was long considered second-rate because its premiere was associated with a political event. Yet this ballet abounds in novel dramaturgical effects that foreshadow his later operas, such as "Zais", "Zoroastre" and "Les Boreades". 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 "Arueris", a scoring found nowhere else in his oeuvre.
For the first time, this scholarly-critical edition of "Les Fetes 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 premiere has vanished, our edition is based on the version prepared for the Academie Royale de Musique in 1748.