Dardanus (Sacchini)
Dardanus is an opera by Antonio Sacchini. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in four acts (later revised to a three-act version). It was first performed at Versailles on 18 September 1784, and subsequently at the Paris Opera on 30 November of the same year. The French-language libretto was adapted by Nicolas-François Guillard from that by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère, which had already been set to music by Jean-Philippe Rameau in his earlier opera of the same name. History Guillard's adaptation blends both 1739 and 1744 versions of Rameau's opera, but is based principally upon the second one. Although "the title-page of the printed score reads only 'paroles de M. Guillard', [in fact] most of the text is by La Bruère". Guillard's interventions mainly consisted in "[omitting] the Prologue, [altering] the order of events in Act 3, and skilfully [compressing] Acts 4 and 5". The librettist "justified his redoing the subject ... [by explaining] that his aim was to tighten the plot and create better motivation for the characters". The dancing divertissement was done by Pierre Gardel. The opera was not successful at its first appearance and had no more than six performances. Both Maillard, who played