Rameau: Pygmalion & Les Fêtes de Polymnie

Featuring

Christophe Rousset
Cyrille Dubois
Céline Scheen
Eugénie Warnier
Marie-Claude Chappuis
Arnold Schoenberg Chor

Les Talens Lyriques
Jean-Philippe Rameau

Did you know?

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Critical Reception

Pygmalion was an immediate success, performed over two hundred times until the 1780s, and was seen by the public and critics as a masterpiece.

Composition History

Jean-Philippe Rameau, the composer, wrote Pygmalion in less than eight days, likely between June and July 1748, due to time constraints.

Composition History

Les Fêtes de Polymnie, another work by Rameau, was designed to celebrate the French victory at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.

Historical Context

The story of Pygmalion was popular at the time, partly due to a controversial 1741 short story by philosopher Antoine Boureau-Deslandes, which was condemned to be burned.

Compositional Technique

The overture to Les Fêtes de Polymnie begins with an unusual and surprising daring seventh chord, which struck Rameau's contemporaries as novel.

Compositional Technique

In Pygmalion, Rameau innovatively uses a two-part overture with a repeated-note fugato that mimics the sculptor's chisel.

Composition History

For Pygmalion, Rameau adapted a libretto called La Sculpture by the poet Antoine Houdar de La Motte, which was originally part of an opera-ballet from 1700.