Amadis de Gaule (J. C. Bach)

Amadis de Gaule, or Amadis des Gaules (Amadis of Gaul), is a French opera in three acts by the German composer Johann Christian Bach. The libretto is a revision by Alphonse de Vismes of Amadis by Philippe Quinault, originally set by Jean-Baptiste Lully in 1684, which in turn, was based on the knight-errantry romance Amadis de Gaula (1508). Bach's opera was first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris, on 14 December 1779. It followed the contemporary French fashion for resetting libretti by Quinault (Armide by Gluck and Roland by Piccinni are other examples of this trend). The work was not a success with the Parisian public, mainly because it pleased neither the supporters of Gluck nor those of Piccinni, the two leading rival opera composers in France at the time. It was the last opera J. C. Bach composed.