What is "alceste"

Alceste, Wq. 37 (the later French version is Wq. 44), is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck from 1767. The libretto (in Italian) was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi and based on the play Alcestis by Euripides. The premiere took place on 26 December 1767 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.

Alceste may refer to:

• Alcestis, mythical Greek princess
• Alceste De Ambris, Italian socialist

Literature:

• Alcestis (play), by Euripides (438 BC)
• Alceste, the queen and wife of the god of love in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women
• Alceste, character in Le Misanthrope by Molière.

Operas:

• Alceste (Lully), by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1674)
• Alceste (Handel), by George Frideric Handel (1750)
• Alceste (Gluck), by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1767)
• Alceste, by Anton Schweitzer (1772)
• Alceste, by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi (1768)
• Alceste, by Rutland Boughton (1922)

Similarly named operas:

• L’Antigona delusa da Alceste, by Pietro Andrea Ziani (1660)
• Alkestis, by Egon Wellesz (1924)

In palaeontology:

• Alceste, a genus of extinct trilobites

In the military:

• , the name of two ships of the Royal Navy

Alceste, ou Le triomphe d’Alcide is a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The French-language libretto is by Philippe Quinault, after Euripides’ Alcestis. It was first performed on 19 January 1674 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal by the Paris Opera.

The opera was presented in celebration of King Louis XIV’s victory against Franche-Comté, and the prologue features nymphs longing for his return from battle. The opera itself concerns Alceste, princess of Iolcos and queen of Thessaly, who in the first act is abducted by Licomède ( Lycomedes), king of Scyros, with the aid of his sister Thetis, a sea nymph; Aeolus, the god of the winds; and other supernatural forces. In the battle to rescue her, Alcide ( Hercules) is triumphant, but Alceste’s husband, Admète ( Admetus), suffers a mortal wound. Apollo agrees to let Admète live if someone will take his place in death. Alceste volunteers herself but is rescued by Alcide, who loves her. The opera ends with a celebration of Alceste’s return from the underworld and of Alcide’s noble gallantry in returning her to her husband and relinquishing any claims to her.

Alceste is Lully’s second tragédie en musique, after Cadmus et Hermione.

Alceste ("Alcides"; HWV 45, HG 46b, HHA I/30) is a masque or semi-opera by George Frideric Handel.

It was written as incidental music to a lost play by Tobias Smollett, which was rehearsed at Covent Garden Theatre but never performed. There was an overture and songs for Acts 1 and 4, 19 movements in total. It was composed from 27 December 1749 to 8 January 1750. Handel later used the music in The Choice of Hercules, HWV 69, and revivals of Alexander Balus, HWV 65, and Hercules, HWV 60.

Alceste is an opera in German in five acts by Anton Schweitzer with a libretto by Christoph Martin Wieland. It was commissioned by Abel Seyler for the Seyler theatrical company, and premiered on 28 May 1773 at the Hoftheater Weimar. Seyler was a strong proponent of German opera. Schweitzer worked as a musical director for the Seyler theatrical company since 1769.