Atys (Lully)

Atys (Attis) is a tragédie en musique, a type of early French opera, in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully to a libretto by Philippe Quinault based on Ovid's Fasti. It was premiered on 10 January 1676 by Lully's Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opera) for the royal court at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and was first performed in public in April at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris. Although this opera was met with indifference by the Parisian audience, it became known as "the king's opera" because of King Louis XIV's love for it. It was repeated for Louis XIV in 1678 and 1682.

The French style of opera, established in the 1670s by Lully, was in five acts with a prologue.

Prologue

Lully's prologues normally served to comment on current events at the court of Louis XIV in a way that flattered the king. When the opera was premiered in 1676, France was at war with the Netherlands, and the French winter campaign had resulted in the tragic death of Henri de la Tour. Louis XIV was waiting for the fairer spring weather to arrive so that he could invade Flanders.

The overture is in standard French overture form and style as developed by Lully, featuring three sections: a slow section in duple meter and pompous dotted rhythms in G minor, followed by a faster middle section and concluded with a second slow section ending with a Picardy third.

The scene for the prologue is at the Palace of the allegorical character Time. A chorus of Hours of the Day and Night sing the praises of a 'hero' (Louis XIV) in "Ses Justes loix, ses grands exploits" ("His just laws, his great exploits"). Flore, the goddess of spring and her nymphs arrive and discuss the arrival of spring and perform dances. A Zephyr, on the other hand, laments the coming of spring and the battles that will follow. Just as the hero is about to leave for battle, Melpomene arrives and, in a gesture functioning as a transition to Act I, proceeds to tell the story of Atys in the recitative "Retirez vous." Iris then enters and relays the message from the goddess Cybèle in "Cybèle veut que Flore." This is followed by more dances and the chorus "Préparez vous de nouvelles festes."

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