The famous Marquise de Pompadour, favorite of King Louis XV for nearly twenty years, reigned over the arts at court. Rameau, whom she greatly admired, was omnipresent. He received a specific commission for the Théâtre des Petits Appartements, where the Marquise herself sang among a company of amateurs and professionals: the result was Les Surprises de l'Amour, from which the ensemble Les Surprises takes its name. Under the expert direction of Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas, the group presents here the very first recording of this ballet in its original 1748 version, including the prologue Le Retour d'Astrée, and couples it with another commission for one of the court's annual residences in Fontainebleau: Les Sybarites (1753), a ballet act whose leading couple evokes the king himself and his favorite. A first-class vocal cast brings these two works back to life: Marie Perbost, Eugénie Lefebvre, Jehanne Amzal, Clément Debieuvre, David Witczak, Philippe Estèphe.
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