Castor et Pollux

About

Castor et Pollux is an opera by 18th Century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau and is generally regarded as one of the composer's greatest works. Written in the form of tragédie en musique, the story is based on the Green myth of the maternal half-brothers Castor and Pollux--of whom Castor was born of a mortal father, while Pollux was born of Jupiter, king of the gods. There are two versions of the opera made by the composer; the first being the version that originally premiered in 1737, and the second being the version that was premiered by the composer during the opera's revival in 1754. Though scholars of Rameau are at odds about which version is best, the latter version is generally considered to be more advanced stylistically, while the original is considered to be more daring compositionally for the time in which it was written.