Les Eléments

Les Eléments is an opéra-ballet in four acts and a prologue that enjoyed enormous success. The music for this work was written by Michel-Richard de Lalande and André-Cardinal Destouches (see seventeenth century volume for opéra-ballet, Lalande, and Destouches). Its librettist was Pierre-Charles Roy. It had its world premiere at the Tuileries palace on 22 December 1721, when Louis XV appeared in it. It was not until 29 May 1725 that it was produced at the Palais-Royal, but it appears to have run…