La princesse de Navarre

La princesse de Navarre (The Princess of Navarre) is an operatic work by Jean-Philippe Rameau with words by Voltaire, first performed on 23 February, 1745 at La Grande Ecurie, Versailles. It was commissioned to celebrate the marriage of Princess Marie-Thérèse of Spain to the Dauphin Louis of France. La princesse de Navarre opened the wedding festivities, while another new Rameau opera, Platée, closed them. The piece takes the form of a comédie-ballet, effectively a play with a large amount of incidental music, recalling the collaborations of Molière and Lully in the 17th century.

Voltaire was a great admirer of Rameau, even considering him too good a composer for such a task. Nevertheless, Rameau wrote over an hour of music for the play, including an overture and three divertissements (musical interludes which ended each act). Much of the material was reworked to produce another opera, Les fêtes de Ramire, later the same year.

Recordings

• La princesse de Navarre English Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan (1 CD, Erato, 1980)

Sources

• Cuthbert Girdlestone Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work (Dover paperback edition, 1969)
• The New Grove French Baroque Masters ed. Graham Sadler (Grove/Macmillan, 1988)
• The Viking Opera Guide ed. Amanda Holden (Viking, 1993)