Ex. 1-1: Le héros que j'attends

From the Prologue of Lully's tragédie en musique "Alceste" (1674). The aria is sung by the Nymph of the Seine, a personification of Paris and the court, who longs for the return of her hero — a direct reference to Louis XIV, then away commanding his armies during the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678).

The aria takes the form of a rondeau, with the refrain "Le héros que j'attends ne reviendra-t-il pas?" (Will the hero I await not return?) recurring throughout. Rather than heroic grandeur, Lully expresses the hero's absence through languor — a dragging, melancholic melody over a delicate continuo.

Immediately after the aria, the sound of battle ("Bruit de Guerre") erupts from backstage, and the Goddess of Glory appears to reassure the Nymph that the hero is away fighting for glory. The set is the Tuileries Palace and its gardens, where the Nymph appears leaning against a water urn amid fountains and tree-lined paths.

Track 2 from the album Lully: Alceste by Lucía Martín-Cartón, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques (2017)
Spotify