Les surprises de l'Amour is an opéra-ballet in two entrées (three or four in later versions) and a prologue by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was first performed in Versailles on 27 November 1748. The opera is set to a libretto by Gentil-Bernard. According to the usage of the time, it was originally just billed as a ballet and was only later classified by scholars as an opéra-ballet, although its content might more precisely ascribe it to the ballet héroïque genre.
The original 1748 version consisted of a prologue and two entrées (acts), "La lyre enchantée" and "Adonis". For its 1757 revival, Rameau cut the prologue and added a third entrée, "Anacréon". The composer had written another opera under the title Anacréon in 1754. The earlier work has a libretto by Louis de Cahusac and a completely different plot. Both are linked by the figure of the ancient Greek lyric poet Anacreon. William Christie and Marc Minkowski have recorded the 1757 Anacréon separately. The complete 1757 Les surprises de l'Amour did not appear on disc until Sébastien d'Hérin's recording in 2013.
Performance history
The work was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and premiered at the third-season opening of her Théâtre des Petits Appartements for the inauguration of the Theatre's new venue upon the Grand Escalier des Ambassadeurs (Ambassadors' Grand Staircase) in the Palace of Versailles, starring Madame De Pompadour herself in two of the original soprano roles, Urania and Venus. In its first form, the work was composed of an allegorical prologue relating to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, "Le retour d'Astrée", and of two entrées, "La lyre enchantée" and "Adonis". Les surprises de l'amour was the first opera specially written by Rameau for the Théâtre des Petits Appartements and was also his first work that was given in the course of its programmes. It was not particularly successful: scenery, costumes, machinery and the new theatre venue were much admired, but the opera itself got the king to openly yawn and to confess he "would like better a comedy".
The work was revived at the Paris Opéra in 1757 to inaugurate the new directors, François Francœur and François Rebel. The prologue, which was no longer relevant, was cut, and a new overture was performed in its place. The two original entrées were heavily revised: "Adonis" was renamed "L'enlèvement d'Adonis" (The rape of Adonis) and a third entrée, "Anacréon", was added. Its first run lasted until 14 August 1757, but only its second and third entrées were performed after 10 July (the original La lyre enchantée was replaced by a version of Les sibarites, an acte de ballet by Rameau to a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel, first performed in 1753). The different entrées were swapped around at various times for later performances and the "self-sufficiency of each portion of Les surprises de l'Amour made the tripartite work a likely source of material for the programs of fragments growing popular in the years before the Revolution".
Writing in Grove Music Online, Graham Sadler considers the air "Nouvelle Hébé, charmante Lycoris" for Anacreon's bass part and the "ravishing, chromatic sommeil" to be "especially fine", and the whole entrée to be the best piece of the opera. Despite the opinion reported by Charles Collé that the 1757 version "[smelt] of old age" (Rameau was by then 73), Sadler believes that "the new and revised music is almost invariably more interesting than that of the original", and that "the airs de ballet are, as always, amazingly inventive". Spire Pitou partly shared Sadler's appreciation, he states that "Rameau's most striking passage in Les surprises de l'Amour was the 'sleep music' in [the] concluding act".
Roles
Synopsis (1757 version)
1st entrée: "L'enlèvement d'Adonis" (The rape of Adonis) Topic: struggle between love and chastity