2(Picc),2Musettes – 2,2,0,0 – Timb – Str – Bc

Rameau’s only extant opera based on a libretto by Voltaire has come down to us in two versions (1745 and 1746), that of 1745 having long been regarded as lost. Volume IV.12 of the “Opera omnia Rameau” now provides a complete edition for the first time and thus the means to perform both versions.

Voltaire refers to Metastasio in his libretto, in that he wanted to liberate the opera from the gallant milieu in order to make it a moralising and...