ABSTRACT
The impact of Rameau’s operatic debut in 1733 and his subsequent triumphs forced all those composers who had formerly held sway at the Academie Royale de Musique to re-examine their own styles. Among these were Andre Cardinal Destouches and François Collin de Blamont, who, as the current surintendants de la musique de la chambre du roi, enjoyed a higher profile than others. Collin de Blamont’s style continued evolving for more than a quarter of a century in his operas and their various reworkings. Collin de Blamont added and enriched, paying special attention to the divertissements, while Destouches reshaped and refined, emphasising the dramatic elements. Many continued to appreciate the simplicity of Collin de Blamont’s style as the expression of a ‘pure taste’. The reworked versions of Destouches’s operas synthesise a middle ground capable of reconciling Lullistes and Ramistes, where noble pathos and brilliant divertissements sit side by side, offering a very personal form of modernity.
