 Comic opera was relatively rare during the Baroque era in France and the musicologist Cuthbert Girdlestone expresses his surprise that none of Rameau's contemporaries seem to have remarked on the innovative nature of "Platée".Rameau may have been inspired by a revival of an earlier comic opera, "Les amours de Ragonde" by Jean-Joseph Mouret, in 1742, or by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's comic opera-ballet, "Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse" from 1743.