Titon et l’Aurore

Titon et l’Aurore is a heroic pastoral in three acts with a libretto by La Motte and the abbé de La Mare that Mondonville set (see seventeenth-century volume for La Motte). This composition was the work around which the Lullists rallied in the guerre des bouffons to defend French music against its pro-Italian critics. It had its world premiere at the Royal Academy of Music on 9 January 1753 and was billed on 47 dates this year. It continued to serve the Lullist cause in 1754 with another five…