The Sheldonian Theatre has been the scene of many major music events down the centuries, but tomorrow a new landmark occasion will be added to the list – the modern première of French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau’s one-act comic opera Anacréon, which has not been performed since the 18th century.

The opera has been brought back to life by Jonathan Williams, director of music at St Hilda’s College, and – in a parallel career – composer and orchestrator of award-winning video game soundtracks. The Anacréon storyline, Jonathan explains, involves a love triangle.

“On the surface it’s very light. There’s a young couple finding out about love. Anacréon is a poet, and he notices that this is going on. In his old age he wants to do something nice, so he provokes the couple into admitting their love for each other. But beneath the surface there are probably allegorical references to court life – we think the piece was commissioned by Madame de Pompadour, who was Louis XV’s mistress from 1745.

“But above all, it’s about the music. It’s incredibly sparky – Rameau wrote the opera when he was in his seventies, he’s a great inspiration for late developers! He’s neglected in Britain because his music is very difficult to play and sing well, and you need the coffers of Louis XV to pay for it: he requested a huge chorus, an orchestra of 30 or 40, dancers, and opulent staging, all requiring lots of rehearsals. Even at the time people couldn’t believe how much they were spending.”

The resurrection of Anacréon has involved Jonathan pounding the streets of Paris, because the score had become scattered among many different Parisian libraries.

“What makes the piece interesting is that there are two versions, and there isn’t a complete source for either of them. One version was performed in 1754, but Rameau revised it, then died before the revised version was performed. “Then people started chopping bits. It was a great puzzle, working out what Rameau’s final thoughts on the piece were before the posthumous guys cut it to pieces. Also, there was a huge fire at the Paris Opera the year Rameau died, so I guess a lot of scores went up in smoke then. It’s lucky any of this material survives.” Meanwhile, Jonathan’s work on video game soundtracks has continued. How, I ask, did he first get involved?

“I went to a studio to learn how to operate a mixing desk, and met a chap who was already writing tracks for driving and shooting games. As soon as he discovered I had a classical training he got me involved because people like Sony and Atari sometimes want cinematic-style soundtracks. I work for Bicester-based Nimrod Productions, who are the UK’s biggest producers of video game music. It’s an absolute thrill: we use top-notch musicians, and the scores can very easily be on a par with good film music. In fact we won the first Ivor Novello award for our score for a Sony game two years ago.”

So is there any original Jonathan Williams music filling gaps in Anacréon?

“There is. We’ll see if anyone in the audience can spot it!”