• Jean-Baptiste Lully. Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. 1673.
• Libretto by Philippe Quinault, after Euripides’ Alcestis.
• First performance at the Paris Opéra on 19th January 1674.

---

CHARACTERS

Alceste (Alcestis), Princess of Iolcos	soprano
Admète (Admetus), King of Thessaly	haute-contre
Alcide (Alcides = Hercules)	baritone
Licomède (Lycomedes), King of Scyros	bass
Charon	baritone
Pluton (Pluto)	bass
Proserpine (Proserpina)	soprano
Confidants and confidantes of the principal mortals
Gods

---

Alceste treats the subject of Alcestis, wife of Admetus, King of Thessaly, who is allowed to replace her husband, when he is about to die, but is brought back from the Underworld by Hercules. Lully’s elaborate version, based on the legend, his second tragedy, has Hercules as a disappointed lover of Alcestis, eventually, after her rescue, allowing her to stay with her husband. In the first act Alcestis is abducted by another lover, Lycomedes, King of Scyros, helped by his sister, the sea-nymph Thetis, Aeolus, god of the winds and other supernatural forces. In a battle to rescue Alcestis, Hercules is victorious against Lycomedes, but Admetus is mortally wounded. Apollo now offers Admetus his life, if someone will take his place in death. Alcestis is willing to take her husband’s place and is duly rescued by Hercules. The final act celebrates her triumphant return and the noble gallantry of Hercules in giving up any claim to her. The tragedy is introduced by a prologue in which nymphs long for the victorious return of Louis XIV from battle.

Offered in celebration of the victory of Louis XIV against Franche-Comté, Alceste provided a magnificent spectacle and the expected element of dance generally found in French opera. A comic sub-plot involving the secondary characters, confidants and confidantes of the leading figures in the work gave audiences a series of tunes that won immediate popularity, however misplaced and inappropriate some critics found such comic elements in a tragedy. The work was revived on a number of later occasions.