About the work
Persée et Andromède is a three-act ballet-pantomime with music by Étienne-Nicolas Méhul and choreography by Pierre Gardel, ballet master of the Paris Opéra. It premiered on 8 June 1810 at the Académie impériale de musique in Paris; Méhul composed and arranged the score specifically for the production, incorporating, among other things, a rondo after Daniel Steibelt.
Plot
Perseus secretly loves Andromeda at the court of her father, King Cepheus, and must win her against his rival Phineus. Aided by the gods — among them Jupiter, Mercury and Pallas — he slays Medusa and rides the winged horse Pegasus. When Neptune sends a sea monster as punishment, Perseus rescues Andromeda, defeats the monster and turns Phineus's followers to stone, before the wedding is celebrated.
Cultural significance
The lavishly staged ballet, with its mythological cast of gods, was dedicated to the Austrian ambassador Karl Philipp of Schwarzenberg and received around 20 performances through 1812. Contemporary accounts particularly praised the dancing and how closely the music followed the action.