Medee Et Jason: Tragedie En Musique

Salomon's Médée et Jason is a conventional tragedie en musique in most aspects and the time-honored schemes established by Lully and Philippe Quinault during the preceding generation run their full gamut in this opera. Nevertheless the work possesses some excellent moments of music and drama both which defy the banality of fixed practices. Thus begins the section of Leslie Ellen Brown's introduction to the facsimile edition of Salomon's opera dealing with the musical and dramatic features of Médée et Jason. This study of a moderately successful production of the Académie Royale de Musique and its four revivals an unusual number for a tragedie en musique contains the scholarly apparatus usual in this series and adds to our understanding of the genre and the time.