About the work
Tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully to a libretto by Philippe Quinault, based on the ancient myth of the Phrygian shepherd Atys. The opera was first performed for the court on 10 January 1676 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and received its first public performance at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris that April.
Plot
The shepherd Atys and Princess Sangaride love each other in secret, even though Sangaride is to be married to King Célénus. The goddess Cybèle also falls in love with Atys and makes him her high priest. On learning of his true love, she drives him mad; in his frenzy he kills his own beloved before taking his own life and being transformed by Cybèle into a pine tree.
Cultural significance
Louis XIV was especially fond of the work and suggested elements of its subject to the librettist himself, earning it the name 'opéra du roi', even though Paris audiences initially received it with indifference. Conductor William Christie's widely noted 1987 staging is credited with launching the modern rediscovery of Lully on stage.