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Les Boréades

Les Boréades (The Descendants of Boreas) or Abaris is an opera in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was the last of Rameau's five tragédies en musique. The libretto, attributed to Louis de Cahusac (died 1759), is loosely based on the Greek legend of Abaris the Hyperborean and includes Masonic elements.

There were no known performances of this opera in Rameau's lifetime. The work was in rehearsal in 1763 at the Paris Opéra, probably for a private performance at the court at Choisy. It is not known why the performance was abandoned, though many theories have been put forward, including that factions at court fought over it, the music was too difficult, there were subversive plot elements, and that the Opéra was burnt down in the month of rehearsals. The first known performance of the work was in 1770 in a concert performance at Lille. J.J.M. Lacroix had collected Rameau's works after the composer's death, and thus ensured survival of this score. The Bibliothèque Nationale housed the collected works, including various manuscripts related to this opera.

The first modern performance of the work was by the ORTF in 1963. It owes its modern revival to the conductor John Eliot Gardiner, who gave a concert version of the piece (in which Trevor Pinnock played continuo) at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 14 April 1974, for which he had prepared the orchestral material from the original manuscripts over the preceding year. In July 1982, Gardiner gave the first fully staged performance with Catherine Turocy, choreographer, and her New York Baroque Dance Company at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Since then, the opera's reputation and popularity have grown considerably.

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  • Industry/Domain: Drama
  • Category: Opera
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