Rameau, Jean-Philippe: Dardanus

Tragédie in one prologue and 5 acts

“Dardanus” is Rameau’s third “Tragédie lyrique” composed for Paris after “Hippolyte et Aricie” and “Castor et Pollux”. With its multi-facetted music it represents quite a high point of this genre. Its performance history is remarkable in that within only five years two clearly different versions were being performed. The new critical edition by Denis Herlin for the first time offers the possibility to reconstruct the version of May 1744 in addition to the version of 1739. Also, the Appendices include the complete performance material of the version of April 1744, many parts of which could not be heard since. Last but not least the changes of the successful re-staging of 1760 are presented. This performing edition contains all the purely instrumental numbers of the opera in their various versions. Apart from the preludes and ritornellos, these are above all the diverse dance numbers.