Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique on October 1, 1733.

He was highly demanding and bad-tempered, unable to maintain longstanding partnerships with his librettists, with the exception of Louis de Cahusac, who collaborated with him on several operas, including Les fêtes de l ' Hymen et de l ' Amour ( 1747 ), Zaïs ( 1748 ), Naïs ( 1749 ), Zoroastre ( 1749 ; revised 1756 ), La naissance d ' Osiris ( 1754 ), and Anacréon ( the first of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754 ).

Among the audience was Claude Debussy, who especially cherished Castor et Pollux, revived in 1903: " Gluck's genius was deeply rooted in Rameau's works ... a detailed comparison allows us to affirm that Gluck could replace Rameau on the French stage only by assimilating the latter's beautiful works and making them his own.

And the fault, of course, was Rameau's.

The fault was Rameau's and that of the whole culture of this Parisian age.

For it was Rameau's type of music that he had been trying to write, and that he couldn't write.

In 1982 / 83 as part of the French national celebration of Jean Philippe Rameau's 300th birthday, Turocy choreographed the first production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Boréades-it was never performed during the composer's lifetime.

Amiot tried to impress mandarins in Beijing with Rameau's harpsichord piece Les sauvages, a suite that was later reworked as part of Rameau's opera-ballet Les Indes galantes.

After Rameau's death, the German Gluck was persuaded to produce six operas for the Parisian stage in the 1770s.

It was not until the publication of Rameau's ' Traité de l ' harmonie ' ( Treatise on Harmony ) in 1722 that any text discussing musical practice made use of the term in the title, though that work is not the earliest record of theoretical discussion of the topic.

Little is known about Rameau's early years, and it was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony ( 1722 ).

Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, and he was later attacked as an " establishment " composer by those who favoured Italian opera during the controversy known as the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s.

Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it.

La Pouplinière's mistress ( and later, wife ), Thérèse des Hayes, was Rameau's pupil and a great admirer of his music.

The year 1745 was a watershed in Rameau's career.

He had written an opera, Les muses galantes ( inspired by Rameau's Indes galantes ), but Rameau was unimpressed by this musical tribute.

Rousseau was a major participant in the second great quarrel that erupted over Rameau's work, the so-called Querelle des Bouffons of 1752 – 54, which pitted French tragédie en musique against Italian opera buffa.

The Italian opera of Rameau's day ( opera seria, opera buffa ) was essentially divided into musical sections ( da capo arias, duets, trios, etc.

" Camille Saint-Saëns ( by editing and publishing the Pièces in 1895 ) and Paul Dukas were two other important French musicians who gave practical championship to Rameau's music in their day, but interest in Rameau petered out again, and it was not until the late 20th century that a serious effort was made to revive his works.

Rameau's methodology incorporated mathematics, commentary, analysis and a didacticism that was specifically intended to illuminate, scientifically, the structure and principles of music.

Approval with time and place restrictions in the case of The Art of Worldly Wisdom and Rameau's Nephew was considered a " valid exercise of the Board's power.

Rameau's Six Concerts En Sextuor, recorded by L'orchestre De Chambre Pierre Menet ( BAM LD 046 ), turn out to be harpsichord pieces arranged for strings apparently by the composer himself.

Sometimes he would meet the young writer Chabanon, who noted some of Rameau's disillusioned confidential remarks: " Day by day, I'm acquiring more good taste, but I no longer have any genius " and " The imagination is worn out in my old head ; it's not wise at this age wanting to practise arts that are nothing but imagination.

Rameau's music, so graceful and attractive, completely contradicts the man's public image and what we know of his character as described ( or perhaps unfairly caricatured ) by Diderot in his satirical novel Le Neveu de Rameau.

Rameau's music is characterised by the exceptional technical knowledge of a composer who wanted above all to be renowned as a theorist of the art.

Rameau's musical works may be divided into four distinct groups, which differ greatly in importance: a few cantatas ; a few motets for large chorus ; some pieces for solo harpsichord or harpsichord accompanied by other instruments ; and, finally, his works for the stage, to which he dedicated the last thirty years of his career almost exclusively.

For most of the 19th century, Rameau's music remained unplayed, known only by reputation.

Over half of Rameau's operas have now been recorded, in particular by conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, and Marc Minkowski.

Amongst other recordings are Rameau's Dardanus, Monteverdi's L ' Orfeo ( he is generally regarded as the world authority on this character's role ), Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, the role of Frederic in the Sir Charles Mackerras recording of The Pirates of Penzance and lieder by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.

Until a refurbishment in the 1990s, the clock chimed the quarter hour by playing an excerpt from the fourth movement, ' Gigue en Rondeau II ', of Rameau's ( 1683 – 1764 ), ' Pieces de Clavecin ' Suite in E-minor.

Image: Jélyotte by Coypel. jpg |< div align =" center "> Pierre Jélyotte as the nymph Plataea in Rameau's opera Platée

The title role of the vain but ugly marsh nymph in Rameau's Platée is also for a ' haute-contre '.

Nevertheless, while Gluck's popularity survived the French Revolution, Rameau's did not.

Rameau's three collections appeared in 1706, 1724 and 1726 or 1727, respectively.

Gluck's three Italian reform operas of the 1760s — Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, and Paride ed Elena — reveal a knowledge of Rameau's works.

Cantatas were Rameau's first contact with dramatic music.

Not one of his librettists managed to produce a libretto on the same artistic level as Rameau's music: the plots were often overly complex or unconvincing.

Many of the operatic reforms advocated in the preface to Gluck's Alceste were already present in Rameau's works.

The article on fingering in Rousseau's Dictionnaire ( 1768 ) contains rules which the author presents ' with confidence, because I have them from M Duphli, excellent harpsichord teacher who possesses above all perfection in fingering ' ( though either Duphly or Rousseau overlooked the fact that these ' rules ' were lifted word for word from Rameau's, in his Pieces de clavecin of 1724 ).

The details of Rameau's life are generally obscure, especially concerning his first forty years, before he moved to Paris for good.

Friedemann himself may have been one of the models for Diderot's philosophical dialogue Rameau's Nephew ( Le Neveu de Rameau ).