Naïs is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...

 first performed on 22 April 1749 at the Opéra in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It takes the form of a pastorale héroïque

Pastorale héroïque

Pastorale héroïque was a type of ballet héroïque, a form of the opéra-ballet genre of French Baroque opera. The first work to bear the name was Jean-Baptiste Lully's final completed opera Acis et Galatée , although musical works on pastoral themes had already appeared on the French stage...

in three acts and a prologue. The librettist

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 was Louis de Cahusac

Louis de Cahusac

Louis de Cahusac was a French playwright and librettist, most famous for his work with the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau...

, in the fourth collaboration between him and Rameau. The work bears the subtitle Opéra pour La Paix, which refers to the fact that Rameau composed the opera on the occasion of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, at the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession. Its original title was Le triomphe de la paix, but criticism of the terms of the treaty led to a change in the title.

C. M. Girdlestone has listed instrumental music that Rameau borrowed from his own Les Fêtes de Polymnie and Les Paladins for Naïs, and in turn the music that Rameau took from Naïs for Hippolyte et Aricie. Graham Sadler has discussed various facets of Rameau's orchestration for Naïs.

Roles

• Flore, soprano
  Soprano
  A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
  
  
• Jupiter bass
• Naïs, soprano
• Neptune, haute-contre
  Haute-contre
  The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century.-History:...
  
  
• Palémon bass
• Pluton, bass
• Télénus, bass
• Tirésie, bass

Synopsis

The god Neptune is enamoured of the water-nymph Naïs, and disguises himself as a mortal to try to win her over. This takes place at the Isthmian Games at Corinth, ironically a festival dedicated to Neptune. The god's rivals for the affections of Naïs are the Corinthian chief Telemus and the leader of the Isthmain shepherds Asterion. The blind soothsayer Tiresias warns Telemus and Asterion to be wary of the sea god, and of the rival stranger. Telemus and Asterion prepare themselves for battle, which climaxes the opera.

Selected recordings

• Erato (1980 recording): English Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra; Nicholas McGegan, conductor