Les Danaïdes - Salieri - Les Talens lyriques

Lyric tragedy in five acts, libretto by François Bailli du Roullet and Louis Théodore de Tchoudi. First performed at the Royal Academy of Music in Paris on 26 April 1784.

Hypermnestre Judith Van Wanroij

Lyncée Philippe Talbot

Danaüs Tassis Christoyannis

Plancippe Katia Velletaz

Pélagus Thomas Dolié

Les Chantres du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles

Artistic director Olivier Schneebeli

Les Talens Lyriques

Conductor Christophe Rousset

Initially entrusted to Gluck, the libretto of Les Danaïdes was finally set to music by his disciple Salieri, who wrote one of the most remarkable scores of the late 18th century.

The theatricality of the subject matter, the intensity of feeling and the pathetic lyricism of the arias fully justify Berlioz's admiration for this work. Heir to the Gluckist reform, Les Danaïdes is above all a forerunner of Méhul's and Cherubini's Pre-Romanticism, while conjuring up the tragic grandeur of Racine and Corneille.

This is the work that overnight made an unknown artist a star of the Paris Opera: the day after the triumphant premiere of Les Danaïdes, officially signed by Gluck, the latter revealed that it was not he but his colleague Salieri who had written it. Salieri became exceptionally well known and the darling of Parisians (without having to kill Mozart...).