About the work
Tragédie lyrique in three acts by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard after Pierre Corneille's tragedy 'Horace' (1640), publicly premiered on 7 December 1786 at the Paris Opéra, following earlier court performances in November/December 1786 at Fontainebleau and Versailles.
Plot
Rome and Alba Longa agree to settle their war through a duel between three brothers from each side: the Horatii for Rome, the Curiatii for Alba. Camille, sister of the Horatii and betrothed to one of the Curiatii, is torn between love and duty to her city. Unlike Corneille, Guillard's libretto stops short of showing Camille's death at her brother's hand on stage and concentrates the action on the duel itself.
Cultural significance
Following the great success of Salieri's 'Les Danaïdes' (1784), expectations for 'Les Horaces' ran high, but the premiere was a fiasco: according to one Salieri biographer, it met with 'not merely a lack of applause, but unmistakable signs of displeasure'. Contemporaries such as Beaumarchais blamed the failure less on the music than on a subject felt to be too grim and a weak libretto.