In the spring of 1770 Marie-Antoinette, the 14-year-old daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, arrived at the court of Louis XV. Her marriage to the dauphin (later Louis XVI) on 16 May was the cause of general celebration. In the event, the French saw a guarantee of the alliance with Austria and hope for peace after decades of very costly wars. For such a major state occasion, operas played an important part in the festivities. New works were given, and lavish productions of those in standard repertory entertained the court during much of the year. The first that Marie-Antoinette saw (on the day after her wedding) was Lully's Persée (as revised by François Francoeur, François Rebel, Antoine Dauvergne and Bernard de Bury – all court musicians as well as successful composers for the Académie Royale de Musique [the Opéra]). Papillon de La Ferté, the intendant des Menus-Plaisirs du Roi (the government official in charge of court entertainments among other duties) recorded in his diary that in general the court were very pleased with the magnificence of the spectacle. But with a touch of chagrin, he noted that ‘Madame la Dauphine did not seem to have acquired a taste for it. It is true that it is a rather too serious opera for someone who is not yet familiar with the genre and who does not like music’. During her stay at Versailles, Marie-Antoinette also had the opportunity to see Rameau's Castor et Pollux and Dauvergne's new opéra-ballet, La tour enchantée (which made use of several pieces by Rameau and his contemporaries), as well as three tragédies (Racine's Athalie and Voltaire's Tancrède and Sémiramis), but only one comédie (Poisson's L'impromptu de campagne). The choice clearly was intended to present masterpieces from the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV.