Le temple de la Gloire

Le temple de la Gloire (The Temple of Glory) is an opéra-ballet in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on 27 November 1745 at the Grande Ecurie, Versailles, and is set to a libretto by Voltaire.

Roles

Act 1

Singers

• Envy, basse-taille (bass-baritone) (François Le Page)
• Apollo, haute-contre (Pierre Jélyotte)
• A Muse, soprano (Mlle Rotisset de Romainville)
• Demons accompanying Envy
• Muses and heroes accompanying Apollo

Dancers

• Eight demons, seven heroes and the nine Muses

Act 2

Singers

• Lidie, soprano (Marie-Jeanne Fesch called Mlle Chevalier)
• Arsine, confidant of Lidie, soprano (Mlle Jacquet)
• Shepherds and shepherdesses
• A shepherdess, soprano (Mlle Bourbonnois the elder)
• A shepherd, basse-taille (M Albert)
• Another shepherd, haute-contre (M de La Tour)
• Bélus, basse-taille (Claude-Louis-Dominique Chassé de Chinais)
• Captive kings and soldiers accompanying Bélus
• Apollon, haute contre (Pierre Jélyotte)
• The nine Muses (Mlles Romainville, Canavasse, Jacquet, Delastre; Monsieurs Le Begue, Duguet)

Dancers

• Shepherds and shepherdesses

Act 3

Singers

• Grand priest of Glory, basse-taille (François Le Page)
• A priestess, soprano (Mlle de Metz)
• Chorus of priests and priestesses of Glory
• A warrior, follower of Bacchus, basse-taille (M Benoist)
• A bacchante, soprano (Marie-Angélique Coupé or Coupée)
• Bacchus, haute-contre (François Poirier)
• Erigone, soprano (Marie Fel)
• Warriors, egypans, bacchantes, and satyrs accompanying Bacchus

Dancers

• First divertissement: five priestesses of Glory, four heroes
• Second divertissement: nine bacchantes, six egypans, eight satyrs

Act 4

Singers

• Plautine, soprano (Marie-Jeanne Fesch called Mlle Chevalier)
• Junie & Fanie, confidants of Plautine, sopranos (Mlles Romainville and Canavasse)
• Priests of Mars and priestesses of Venus
• Trajan, haute-contre (Pierre Jélyotte)
• Vanquished kings accompanying Trajan, 2 or 3 hautes-contre, taille (baritenor), 2 basses-tailles (François Poirier, de La Tour, Le Fevre, Gallard, Albert, Person)
• Roman men and women
• Glory, soprano (Marie Fel)
• Followers of Glory

Dancers

• Premier Divertissement: four priests and five priestesses of Mars
• Second Divertissement: followers of Glory, five men and four women

Act 5

Singers

• A Roman woman, soprano (Mlle Bourbonnois the elder)
• A shepherdess, soprano (Marie-Angélique Coupé or Coupée)
• Shepherds and shepherdesses
• A Roman man, basse-taille (M Benoist)
• Young Roman men and women
• All characters from Act 4

Dancers

• Romans of different estates
• First quadrille: three men and two women
• Second quadrille: three men and two women
• Third quadrille: three women and two men
• Fourth quadrille: three women and two men

References

Notes

Sources

• Original libretto : Le Temple de la Gloire, Feste donnée à Versailles, le 27 Novembre 1745, Paris, Ballard, 1745 (accessible for free online at Gallica - B.N.F.)
• Period manuscript score: Le Temple de la Gloire, Opéra de M De Voltaire; mis en musique par M Rameau (...), kept at and digitized by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (accessible for free online at Gallica - B.N.F.)
• Girdlestone, Cuthbert, Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work Dover paperback edition, 1969
• Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-14-029312-4
• Sadler, Graham, The New Grove French Baroque Masters Grove/Macmillan, 1988
• Rameau Le Site

• Role travesti
• Only six singers are listed in the libretto.
• The original libretto states six names for the roles of the vanquished kings, three of whom, Poirier, Latour and Lefevre, were hautes-contre (p. 32). The period score cited below, on the contrary, lists but five parts for the kings and only two of them are notated in the alto clef which was used for hautes-contre, the third is notated in the tenor clef and the two left in the bass clef, which was usual for basses-tailles (p. 168).