• Jean-Baptiste Lully. Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts. 1684.
• Libretto by Philippe Quinault, based on Nicolas Herberay des Essart’s adaptation of Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo’s Amadis de Gaula (Amadis of Gaul).
• First performance at the Paris Opéra on 18th January 1684.

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CHARACTERS

Alquif, sorcerer	baritone
Urgande, sorceress, his wife	soprano
Amadis, son of Perion, King of Gaul	haute-contre
Oriane, daughter of Lisuart, King of Britain	soprano
Florestan, natural son of Perion	baritone
Corisande, confidante of Oriane	soprano
Arcabonne, sorceress	soprano
Arcalaus, sorcerer, her brother	baritone
Ghost of Ardan Canile, his brother	baritone

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Lully’s opera centres on the medieval hero Amadis of Gaul, whose adventures are recounted in the early 16th-century narrative of Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo, for much of which that writer claims earlier literary authority. Amadis deals with the knight of that name, much admired by Don Quixote, and his relationship with his beloved Oriana, betrothed to another and doubting her lover’s sincerity. An encounter with demons leaves the hero unscathed, but he is seduced by the softer magic charms of nymphs, one in the form of Oriana. The sorceress Arcabonne seeks revenge for the death of her brother, killed by Amadis, with whom, unwittingly, she has fallen in love. The vicissitudes of both hero and heroine are ended by the intervention of the good sorceress Urganda, and all ends happily.

The subject for Lully’s tragédie en musique was chosen by Louis XIV, whose glory is praised in the prologue to the opera. The work contains the expected elements of spectacle, particularly in the scenes of enchantment, and of dance. The second-act Bois épais (Dense forest) of Amadis provided a vehicle for Caruso, while Arcabonne’s Amour que veux-tu de moi? (Love, what do you want of me?) once enjoyed even greater popularity.