The French watchmaker, spy, arms dealer, and part-time revolutionary Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais (1732–1799) is known to posterity as the playwright who inspired Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, which have libretti by other hands. The only libretto from Beaumarchais’s own quill is the long-neglected Enlightenment Oriental morality tale Tarare, set by Antonio Salieri. The hero is a general sent off to war by his wicked king, who covets the general’s virtuous wife. Shades of David, Uriah, and Bathsheba? Yes, indeed, except that this time, tyranny tumbles and virtue prevails. Tarare premiered in 1787, when its ethos suited the French public to a T. Thanks to Beaumarchais’s colorful post-Baroque mishmash of tragic, comic, and clunky allegory combined with the vivid invention of much of Salieri’s score, Tarare’s vogue extended well past the turn of the 19th century. And yet the pending Versailles revival will be the French capital’s first since 1820. Hope for a festive affair. Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who conducts, and Jean-Romain Vesperini, who directs, are the sort of resurrectionists who can imbue period artifice with a nimble, natural grace. Reinoud Van Mechelen, who leads the cast as Tarare, has that rare gift, too. —Matthew Gurewitsch