Achille et Polyxène is a tragédie lyrique containing a prologue and five acts based on Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

with a French libretto by Jean Galbert de Campistron

Jean Galbert de Campistron

Jean Galbert de Campistron was a French dramatist-Biography:Campistron was born in Toulouse, France to a noble family.At the age of seventeen he was wounded in a duel and sent to Paris...

. The opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

's overture and first act were composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...

, who died from a conducting injury before he could complete the score. The prologue and the remaining acts are the work of his pupil Pascal Collasse

Pascal Collasse

Pascal Collasse was a French composer of the Baroque era. Born in Rheims, Collasse became a disciple of Jean-Baptiste Lully during the latter's domination of the French operatic stage...

 who finished the work, eight months after Lully's death on March 22, 1687. The opera was first performed at the Palais Royale in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on November 7, 1687.

Analysis of the libretto and music

The libretto for this opera differs from those of Lully's earlier works with Philippe Quinault

Philippe Quinault

Philippe Quinault , French dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris.- Biography :Quinault was educated by the liberality of François Tristan l'Hermite, the author of Marianne. Quinault's first play was produced at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1653, when he was only eighteen...

. Typically, Lully would begin his operas with a lively prologue, but this work has a somber prologue in which the Muses lament the king's desire for military expansion. Another difference is the tragic and somber ending of this opera in Act V. Lully usually ended his operas with a rousing ensemble number but this opera closes with the suicide of the heroine. The end of Act IV, the wedding scene, does contain a vibrant ensemble number at its close which would be more in keeping with a typical finale of one of Lully's opera.

Roles

Cast	Voice type	Premiere, November 7, 1687 (Conductor: - )
Achille	haute-contre Haute-contre The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century.-History:...	Louis Gaulard Dumesny Louis Gaulard Dumesny Dumesnil was a French operatic tenor . His surname is sometimes found spelt Duménil, Dumény, du Mény, or Du Mesny....
Agamemnon	bass	Jean Dun
Priam	bass	François Beaumavielle François Beaumavielle François Beaumavielle was a French operatic bass-baritone.Trained in Toulouse, he was engaged at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris by Pierre Perrin and Robert Cambert, where he created their opera Pomone in 1671....
Andromaque	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Fanchon Moreau Fanchon Moreau Françoise 'Fanchon' Moreau was a French operatic soprano who belonged to the Académie Royale de Musique, also a celebrated beauty who was a favourite of the Great Dauphin.-Opera career:...  or Louison Moreau Louison Moreau Louise 'Louison' Moreau was a French operatic soprano who belonged to the Académie Royale de Musique, also a popular celebrity commonly referred to as one of the filles de l'opéra.-Opera career:... ?
Polixène	soprano	Marie le Rochois Marie Le Rochois Marie Le Rochois was a French operatic soprano who belonged to the Académie Royale de Musique. She is often referred to as Marthe Le Rochois or simply La Rochois.-Opera career:...
Briséis	soprano	Marie-Louise Desmatins

Recordings

To date, this opera has not yet been recorded, although individual selections have been recorded by various artists.

Sources

• The New Grove French Baroque Masters (Macmillan, 1986): article on Lully by Graham Sadler
• The Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (Viking, 1993)
• Le magazine de l'opéra baroque by Jean-Claude Brenac (in French)
• Amadeus Almanac