Zaïde, reine de Grenade (Zaïde, Queen of Grenada) is a ballet-héroïque written by the French Baroque composer Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (c. 1705-1755), to a text by the Abbé de La Marre.

Royer’s "sparse but sensuous orchestral textures with flutes and oboes very prominent" have been praised in Zaïde together with "his exuberant choral writing and his fluid treatment of recitative and aria" (Morrison, 2005).

Zaide is also the subject of an unfinished opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart written in 1779 and 1780. It is K. 344 in the catalog of Mozart's works.

Performance history

Zaïde was first performed, under the direction of the composer, on 3 September 1739 for the wedding of King Louis XV's daughter, when it ran for 44 performances, and was revived for the wedding of the dauphin in 1745, and again for the wedding of Marie Antoinette in 1770. It has been performed in recent years, thanks to a new edition by Lionel Sawkins.

Roles and role creators

• Zaïde, soprano Marie Pélissier
• Isabelle, soprano Eremans
• Octave, tenor (haute-contre) Pierre Jélyotte
• Almanzor, tenor (haute-contre) Denis-François Tribou
• Zuléma, baritone François Le Page
• Ballerina, Marie Sallé
• Ballerino, Louis Dupré

Synopsis

The plot is quite simple. Queen Zaïde in the Alhambra has to decide between the love of two rival Moorish princes and chooses the good prince.

Sources

• Amadeus Almanac, accessed 28 July 2008
• Review of Zaïde by Richard Morrison in [[The Times] of London] October 18, 2005
• Article on Mozart's Zaide in Wikipedia
• Zaïde in the French Wikipedia