As composer to King Louis XIV of France, Rameau's works enjoyed considerable success, both at court and, as the leading composer of contemporary French opera, with the Parisian public. In 1752 he was asked to present three one-act operas for a royal entertainment at the palace of Fontanbleau in the following year. These were intended by Rameau to have a common theme of love—an allegory of the close relationship between Louis and Madame de Pompadour. It was quickly realized by the king's counselors that with Queen Marie and her children in residence, this idea could easily turn into a public scandal. Thus, Rameau's intended tribute was received without enthusiasm.

In the event all was tactfully non-controversial. "La Naissance d'Osiris," meant as an allegory of the birth of the duc du Barry, the future King Louis, turned out to be little more than a musical entertainment. The fuzzy plot is reinforced by a collection of elaborately-staged scenes, dances and airs. The music wears well and, while unlikely to represent the work as originally conceived, is now always performed as an orchestral suite. It is representative of the graceful, melodically attractive French Baroque instrumental music that was then being imitated throughout Europe.

A sprightly overture welcomes the king (and presumably, his mistress) to the occasion, and is repeated at the end for their departure, displaying the fine qualities of Rameau's woodwind scoring for the royal oboes and newly-introduced single-keyed flutes. The remainder of the work divides into a sequence of gavottes, minuets, musettes (in which the rustic sound of French bagpipes is imitated), airs and rondeaux. If all the purely orchestral numbers in the original score are played, the work lasts about thirty minutes.

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