Les Fêtes de Ramire RCT 40

This work tells the love story between Fatime, accused of murdering her father, and the king’s son Ramire, who is in love with her and frees her from the captivity of his father Alphonse, the King of Castile.

This opera in the form of a one-act ballet was only performed once on 22 December 1745 in Versailles and is one of Rameau's lesser-known works. It has only been performed again in the recent past.

The commission for “Les Fêtes de Ramire” did not go to Rameau himself, but to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Nevertheless, the opera was based on Rameau's comédie-ballet “La Princess de Navarre”, which had been performed just a few months earlier and whose libretto was written by Voltaire, who shortened it for “Les Fêtes de Ramire”. Rousseau added the overture and new transitions to the work. Although, according to Rousseau, all the changes were reviewed by Rameau at the last minute, he did not have enough time to compose new music.

Voltaire himself described his own libretto as ‘wretched’ and the few minutes of music by Rousseau have mainly curiosity value, however, the density of outstanding compositions by Rameau, many of which were later incorporated into his other works, makes a performance well worthwhile.