Castor et Pollux. Tragédie en 5 actes et un prologue
Jean-Philippe Rameau 1683–1764
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Themes & character
Rameau's greatest opera·French tragedie lyrique·Premiered 1737·Keyboard reduction
About the piece
Widely considered Rameau's finest opera, first staged in 1737 and revised substantially in 1754. It tells the story of the twin brothers, one mortal and one divine, and Pollux's decision to surrender his immortality for his brother.
Rameau's operas provoked a decades-long pamphlet war in Paris between his supporters and the partisans of Lully, and later between French and Italian styles, disputes in which Rousseau took an energetic and hostile part against him.
The composer
Jean-Philippe Rameau
1683–1764
Jean-Philippe Rameau was a French composer and music theorist of the late Baroque era. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the harpsichord, alongside François Couperin.
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