Thésée

Operas by Jean-Baptiste Lully
Cadmus et Hermione (1673) Alceste (1674) Thésée (1675) Atys (1676) Isis (1677) Psyché (1678) Bellérophon (1679) Proserpine (1680) Persée (1682) Phaëton (1683) Amadis (1684) Roland (1685) Armide (1686) Acis et Galatée (1686) Achille et Polyxène (completed 1687 by Collasse)
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Thésée (Theseus) is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Metamorphoses first performed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 11 January 1675.

The plot centers around a love triangle: Egée wants to marry his ward, princess Eglé, while the sorceress Médée wishes to marry the young warrior Thésée, but Thésée and Eglé love each other. Médée attempts to force the lovers to renounce each other: first by using her magic to bring Eglé to a place of torment, then by convincing Egée to have Thésée killed as a potential threat to his reign. But before Thésée can drink the poison he has been given, Egée realises that Thésée is his lost son. He then gives Eglé to Thésée. Médée takes vengeance by destroying the festive setting, but the goddess Minerve undoes this.

Roles

• Egée (baritone)
• Eglé (soprano)
• Médée (soprano)
• Thésée (countertenor) - Louis Gaulard Dumesny
• Minerve (soprano)

Sources

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

External links

• Thésée: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.

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