Tanis and Zelide
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| Title: | Tanis and Zelide |
| Genus: | Opera libretto |
| Original language: | French |
| Author: | Voltaire |
| Publishing year: | 1784 |
| Premiere: | not listed |
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Tanis et Zélide , with the full title Tanis et Zélide ou les Rois Pasteurs , is an opera libretto in five acts by Voltaire from 1733 . The piece was neither set to music nor performed. It was first published in 1784 in the Kehl edition based on a manuscript .
action
The action takes place in a landscape in front of the ancient city of Memphis in Egypt . The king's daughter Zélide loves the shepherd Tanis against the wishes of the magicians. The warrior Phanor wants to make Zélide his wife with violence and the help of the magicians. The gods Isis and Osiris intervene. They break the power of the magicians and make the shepherds the kings of Egypt.
Literary source and biographical references
Voltaire wrote the text for Tanis et Zélide from April to December 1733. He took the idea from a position with Strabo , which explains that in the prehistoric times of Egypt the magicians had power over the lives of kings. Shepherd kings would have ended this unrestricted power by introducing the cult of Isis and Osiris.
Performances and contemporary reception
Tanis et Zélide was neither set to music nor performed during Voltaire's lifetime.
Going to press
The text of Tanis et Zélide first appeared in 1784 in the ninth volume of the Kehler edition.
First edition
- Tanis et Zélide ou les Rois Pasteurs , in: Oeuvres completes de Voltaire, Kehl, Imprimerie de la Société Littéraire-Typographique, 1784, 8 °, pp. 291–333. on-line
literature
- Manuel Couvreur: Tanis et Zélide , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 227 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Manuel Couvreur: Tanis et Zélide , in: Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette Livre, 1994, p. 228.