“Zaïs”, the fairy-story opera, now published in the complete edition of Rameau’s works “Opera Omnia Rameau”, is characterized by daring musical experiments and the theme of freemasonry.
Zaïs was Rameau’s first opera devoted entirely to la féerie – the enchanted world of middle-eastern myth, with its genies and fantastical aerial beings. Premiered at the Paris Opéra on 29 February 1748, it was much praised for the strength, elegance and diversity of its music and for the grace of its ballets. Although Louis de Cahusac’s libretto came in for criticism, this delightful work proved popular: it was revived at the Opéra in 1761 and 1769, notching up over 100 performances during a period of more than two decades.
Zaïs was also one of Rameau’s first works to articulate masonic themes. While such themes are more prominent in Zoroastre (1749) and Les Boréades (1763), they are already found here, albeit in less developed form. Masonic allusions had to be discreet: freemasons were still regarded with some suspicion in France. Indeed, the last police raid of a masonic gathering took place in 1745, only three years before Zaïs appeared. Nevertheless, the trials by ordeal, the use of a talisman and Cupid’s gift of universal love and happiness have an obvious masonic orientation, as does the prominent symbolism of the four elements: Air, Earth, Fire and Water. These feature prominently not only in the prologue but also, as the Peuples Élémentaires, in the main drama.
As in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, the masonic character of Zaïs is immediately apparent in the overture, which represents “the shock of the Elements as they are separated out” from chaos. This is one of Rameau’s boldest ideas. The opening, for muffled drum, is literally a stroke worthy of Beethoven, and there is a Beethovenian quality about the abrupt tonal changes that follow. This movement nevertheless proved controversial. As one contemporary put it:
I consider that the overture paints so well the unravelling of Chaos that it is unpleasant; this clash of Elements separating and recombining cannot have made a very agreeable concert for the ear. Happily, man was not yet there to hear it: the Creator spared him such an overture, which would have burst his eardrums.
The ensuing creation of the Universe is presided over by the figure of Oromazès, king of the Genii. It is no coincidence that in Zoroastre – the Rameau-Cahusac opera with the strongest masonic inspiration – this same Oromazès acts as the protagonist’s Sarastro-like mentor.
Like most Rameau operas, Zaïs was extensively revised during the composer’s lifetime and beyond. The process began during initial rehearsals and continued into the first run. Composer and librettist eventally used the Easter recess of 1748 to consolidate these revisions which, as well as structural changes and musical substitutions, included the addition of several substantial vocal and instrumental movements.
Among the few casualties was the elimination of a recurrent oracular pronouncement – a striking and original idea. Even so, the version presented after the Easter break is stronger both musically and dramatically, most of the changes involving enrichment. By contrast, the revivals of 1761 and 1769 – the former after Cahusac’s death, the latter after Rameau’s – entailed savage cuts, among them the entire prologue. For the new Opera Omnia Rameau, the version of Easter 1748 has thus been selected as principal text. Performers can nevertheless choose between this and the original, since a series of Complements combines all passages rejected in the Easter revision, while the main score indicates where these passages may be substituted.
Graham Sadler