Tancrède (tragedy)

This change prompted Voltaire to write a drama that would take full advantage of these new performance conditions, creating an elaborate visual spectacle.

Until 1760 all of Voltaire's tragedies had been written in rhyming Alexandrine couplets, the normal form of dramatic poetry in the French theatre of the time.

[7] After initial rehearsals in Tournai there was a private performance at Voltaire's house theatre in Ferney in October 1759; following alterations the play had its public premiere on 13 September 1760.

[8] The premiere in the Comédie-Française with Lekain in the title role and Claire Clairon as Aménaïde[9] was a success and prompted the creation of two parodies by Antoine-François Riccoboni in the Théâtre-Italien: La nouvelle joute and Quand parlera-t-elle?

When a play was required for the celebration of the wedding of the dauphin (the future Louis XVI) and Marie Antoinette in 1770, Tancrède was selected and performed.

He found the mute scene particularly powerful, because the acting alone, he felt, imparted the tragedy more effectively than words could have; it reminded him of Poussin's painting (es) Esther before Ahasuerus.

The other fault he found was in Act 4 where Aménaïde is indignant that Tancrède too is so ready to believe her a traitor; in Diderot's view she should have been able to better appreciate how matters appeared to him.

[14] Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published a German translation in 1802 and Gioacchino Rossini made his great international breakthrough with his opera Tancredi in 1813, inspired by Voltaire's tragedy.