For example, Voltaire sought the presentation of static tableaus that expressed emotion, as in the first act of the 1737 version which begins at the scene of Castor's tomb with a Chorus of Spartans singing "Que tout gemisse", followed by a recitative between Telaire and Phoebe in which the former is grieving the loss of her lover Castor, and culminating in Telaire's lament aria "Tristes apprets".

Dill notes that in contrast, the 1754 version begins with much more background behind the story of Telaire's love for Castor and depicts his death at the end.

While some scholars (such as Cuthbert Girdlestone, Paul-Marie Masson, and Graham Sadler) have assumed that the 1754 version was superior, Dill argues that Rameau made the changes of 1754 at a different point in his career.

In 1737, he was testing the limits of tragedie lyrique; where in 1754, he had done more work with ballet-oriented genres in which he included striking musical compositions that delighted audiences.

They saw Rameau's radical musical innovations as an attack on all they held dear and a war of words broke out between these Lullistes and the supporters of the new composer, the so-called Rameauneurs (or Ramistes).

Rameau had not altered the dramatic structure of Lully's tragédie lyrique genre: he retained the same five-act format with the same types of musical numbers (overture, recitative, air, chorus, and dance suites).

"[4] On the other hand, the complaint of the Lullistes was that Rameau's musical idiom was far more expressive that Lully's and went so far as to call it distastefully "Italianate" (by French standard).

Graham Sadler writes that "It was ... Castor et Pollux that was regarded as Rameau's crowning achievement, at least from the time of its first revival (1754) onwards.

The taste for Rameau's operas did not long outlive the French Revolution but extracts from Castor et Pollux were still being performed in Paris as late as 1792.

The first UK performance, organised by Ronald Crichton, was given by the Oxford University Opera Club in the early 1930s at Magdalen College in November 1934.

The twins have fought a war against an enemy king, Lynceus (Lyncée) which has resulted in disaster: Castor has been slain.

Telaira expresses her grief to her friend Phoebe (Phébé) in Tristes apprêts, one of Rameau's most famous arias.

Pollux and his band of Spartan warriors interrupt the mourning bringing the dead body of Lynceus who has been killed in revenge.

She avoids giving a reply, instead asking him to go and plead with his father Jupiter, king of the gods, to restore Castor to life.

Pollux expresses his conflicting emotions in the aria Nature, amour, qui partagez mon coeur.

Jupiter tries to dissuade him with a ballet of the Celestial Pleasures led by Hebe, goddess of youth, but Pollux is resolute.

Castor sings the aria Séjours de l'éternelle paix: the beautiful surroundings cannot comfort him for the loss of Telaira, neither can a Chorus of Happy Spirits.

The opera ends with the fête de l'univers ("Festival of the Universe") in which the stars, planets and sun celebrate the god's decision and the twin brothers are received into the Zodiac as the constellation of Gemini.

In the 1737 version, the first act opens with a tomb scene in which a chorus of Spartans mourns the death of their fallen king Castor who has been slain by Lynceus.

With Lynceus's corpse at his feet, Pollux proclaims his brother avenged; the Spartans chorus then sings and dances in rejoice "Let Hell applaud this new turn!