In the next scene, Lychas and Straton each claim that Céphise has professed to love them, but neither believes the other, each thinking himself to be her only lover.
Lychas persuades him to stay until nightfall, so as not to invite gossip. Alcide, who also loves Alceste, tells his man Lychas that he would prefer not to attend the wedding, so as not to suffer unnecessarily. The scene shows a port in Thessaly where we see a great ship, decorated and prepared for a festival, at anchor alongside several warships.Ī grand festival is planned for the wedding of Alceste and Admète, the king of Thessaly. A celebration of the pastoral divinities commences. A Soprano assures her that he follows Glory and will return. The Nymph of the Seine longs for Louis XIV to return from battle. Licomède, King of Scyros and brother of Thetis Mlle de Saint-Christophe (or Saint-Christophle) It was revived at Court twice in 1677 and once again in 1678. The opera ends with a celebration of Alceste's return from the underworld and of Alcide's noble gallantry in returning her to her husband and relinquishing any claims to her.Īlceste is Lully's second tragédie en musique, after Cadmus et Hermione. Alceste stabs herself to fulfill this requirement, but is rescued from the Underworld by Alcide, who loves her. Apollo agrees to let Admète live if someone will die in his place. In the battle to rescue her, Alcide ( Hercules) is triumphant, but Alceste's husband, Admète ( Admetus), suffers a mortal wound. The opera itself concerns Alceste, princess of Iolcos and queen of Thessaly, who in the first act is abducted by Licomède ( Lycomedes), king of Scyros, with the aid of his sister Thetis, a sea nymph Aeolus, the god of the winds and other supernatural forces. The opera was presented in celebration of King Louis XIV's victory against Franche-Comté, and the prologue features nymphs longing for his return from battle. It was first performed on 19 January 1674 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal by the Paris Opera. The French-language libretto is by Philippe Quinault, after Euripides' Alcestis. Hercules Fighting Death to Save Alcestis by Frederic Lord Leighton (1869-71)Īlceste, ou Le triomphe d'Alcide is a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
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