Les amours de Ragonde

Les amours de Ragonde (The Loves of Ragonde, original title: Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin ou La Veillée de Village) is an opera in three acts by Jean-Joseph Mouret with a libretto by Philippe Néricault Destouches. It was first performed at the Château de Sceaux in December, 1714. It is one of the first French comic operas.

Mouret was in charge of the Grandes Nuits de Sceaux, musical entertainments put on every fortnight by the Duchesse de Maine at her chateau at Sceaux. For the 13th night, in 1714, Mouret and his librettist wrote Le mariage de Ragonde et de Colin. Comedy was something of a novelty in French opera and the work looks forward to the genre of opéra comique which would become popular in the mid-18th century. Mouret also parodied many famous scenes from the prestigious tragédies en musique by Jean-Baptiste Lully, including moments from Armide, Atys and Alceste.

The next time the opera was heard was after Mouret's death, in a revised version performed by the Académie de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on 30 January 1742, where it was a great success. It probably inspired Jean-Philippe Rameau to write his own comic opera about an ugly woman, Platée. The musical score of the 1714 version of Ragonde does not survive.

Ragonde is an ugly old farmer's widow. At a party in the village she tells the young Colin of her love for him but Colin wants to marry her daughter, Colette, and mocks Ragonde. Lucas, who is also in love with Colette, tells the old woman how she can be revenged on Colin.

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