Les surprises de l'Amour

In its first form, the work was composed of an allegorical prologue relating to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, "Le retour d'Astrée", and of two entrées, "La lyre enchantée" and "Adonis".

The different entrées were swapped around at various times for later performances and the "self-sufficiency of each portion of Les surprises de l'Amour made the tripartite work a likely source of material for the programs of fragments growing popular in the years before the Revolution".

[5] Writing in Grove Music Online, Graham Sadler considers the air "Nouvelle Hébé, charmante Lycoris" for Anacreon's bass part and the "ravishing, chromatic sommeil" to be "especially fine", and the whole entrée to be the best piece of the opera.

Despite the opinion reported by Charles Collé that the 1757 version "[smelt] of old age" (Rameau was by then 73),[6] Sadler believes that "the new and revised music is almost invariably more interesting than that of the original", and that "the airs de ballet are, as always, amazingly inventive".

Spire Pitou partly shared Sadler's appreciation, he states that "Rameau's most striking passage in Les surprises de l'Amour was the 'sleep music' in [the] concluding act".

When Venus (soprano) arrives upon the scene, she easily succeeds in getting the better of Adonis' scruples and, supported by Cupid, they resolve to flee in order to shun Diana's dreadful wrath.

Yet, to her great shame, he maintains his love to Parthenope and only Apollo's (basse-taille) arrival gets to settle the matter: he gives Urania his lyre so as to break the spell and invites the Muses and Sirens to combine their respective talents to form "the sweet chains that lead to pleasures".

As she is dancing and Anacreon singing, however, an inflamed symphony is suddenly heard and the priestess of Bacchus bursts into the scene, followed by the Maenads, objecting to the festivities on account of their profane character and of their mingling together the cults of their god and of Cupid.

In his dreams Anacreon is visited by Cupid (soprano en travesti) and informed that Lycoris is dying of grief because she has been deserted for Bacchus by the insensitive man she is in love with.