Alceste (Lully)
Alceste, ou Le triomphe d'Alcide is a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully.
The opera was presented in celebration of King Louis XIV's victory against Franche-Comté, and the prologue features nymphs longing for his return from battle.
The opera itself concerns Alceste, princess of Iolcos and queen of Thessaly, who in the first act is abducted by Licomède (Lycomedes), king of Scyros, with the aid of his sister Thetis, a sea nymph; Aeolus, the god of the winds; and other supernatural forces.
In the battle to rescue her, Alcide (Hercules) is triumphant, but Alceste's husband, Admète (Admetus), suffers a mortal wound.
The scene shows a port in Thessaly where we see a great ship, decorated and prepared for a festival, at anchor alongside several warships.
Alcide, who also loves Alceste, tells his man Lychas that he would prefer not to attend the wedding, so as not to suffer unnecessarily.
The Thessalonians try to get in their own ships and give chase, but the goddess Thétis, Lycomède's sister, commands the North Winds to create a violent storm so as to protect her brother's flight.
Alceste tries to calm the anger of her kidnapper by explaining that no one can be forced to love, and that he shouldn't take his rejection personally.
Thanks to the heroics of Alcide and the determination of Admète, after a tumultuous battle which destroys the fortifications, the city is finally taken and the defenders surrender or are taken prisoner.
After the departure of Alcide and Lychas, Alceste discovers Admète on the ground, mortally wounded by Lycomède.
Seeing the tears of his wife, the king, much weakened and aware of his situation, tells Alceste not to cry and assures her that he will have been happy to die for her.
Apollo enters the scene and announces to the king that he has permitted him to escape death, on the condition that someone agree to die in his stead.
No one, for the moment, has offered to take his place, and each character gives a good reason why he should not make such a sacrifice: Céphise says she is too young to die; Phérès says he is too old.
Happy to have survived, and to be soon able to dry the tears of his beloved wife, he asks the gods to reveal to him the image of the person who gave their life for him.
The altar's curtains open, revealing the image of Alceste stabbing herself, while Céphise announces that the princess just died, sacrificing herself for him whom she loved.
A party of sad men and another of women carrying flowers and all the ornaments which had adorned Alceste, enter and hold a funeral ceremony.
A hysterical pain takes hold of the crowd: Some rend their garments, others tear their hair, and each person breaks, at the foot of the image of Alceste, the ornaments he carries.
Quickly having been brought up to speed on the situation, he talks to Admète and offers to go look for Alceste in Hades, but on the condition that when he returns with her, she should be made his own wife.
Without hesitation, the king agrees to renounce his love for her and urges Alcide to snatch Alceste out of the jaws of death.
She announces that the gods, moved by such a beautiful idea, have decided to help Alcide by opening a new passage into Hades.
But Alecton enters in great haste, interrupts the festivities, and informs Pluto that Alcide has come down to attack Hades.
The scene contains a triumphal arch between two amphitheaters, where a multitude of different Grecian peoples can be seen assembled to receive Alcide in his triumph from the Underworld.
