Comédie ballet

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Comédie-ballet is a specifically French genre of opera in which a spoken play is loosened up by music and dance.

history

The first piece of this genre is Les Fâcheux (The Troublesome) , which was performed in 1661 in honor of Louis XIV in Vaux-le-Vicomte , the residence of Nicolas Fouquet . The text is by Molière , the music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and the choreography by Pierre Beauchamp . All three worked on other pieces of comédie-ballet , in particular the masterpiece of the genre, Le bourgeois gentilhomme ( The citizen as nobleman ) from 1670. After Molière and Lully got into an argument, Marc-Antoine Charpentier was appointed composer for Le malade imaginaire ( The conceited patient ) involved. During the fourth performance of Le malade imaginaire , Molière fell weak on February 17, 1673 and died a few days later.

In the 18th century, comédie-ballet was considered out of fashion, but it nonetheless retained a long-lasting influence on music in French theater. A late example of this is La princesse de Navarre (The Princess of Navarre) by Voltaire . It was performed in Versailles on February 23, 1745 and consists of a prologue and three acts, as well as an overture and three musical interludes, composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau . The vocal parts are considered particularly difficult and include a duet for hautes-contre .

Comédie-ballet and comédie lyrique

Although the term comédie-ballet is often limited to the form described above, in the 18th century some authors also applied the term to other forms of theatrical art, in particular to versions of the comic opera , which usually consist of three or four acts without a spoken word Dialogues exists. This differed from opéra-ballet (another genre that mixed music and dance) in that it had a continuous storyline (instead of being limited to individual acts), and often had comic or satirical features. This is comparable to the comédie lyrique . Examples are Le carnaval et la folie (1703) by André Cardinal Destouches and La vénitienne (1768) by Antoine Dauvergne , a new version of the ballet of the same name by Michel de La Barre , published in 1705 . A completely different use of the term comédie-lyrique as a form of the modern re-creation of comédie-ballet is Le piège de Méduse (1913) by Erik Satie , a piece in one act with seven short dance passages, which was originally composed for piano.

List of comédies-ballets

Comédies-ballets by Molière-Lully-Beauchamp

Comédies-ballets by Molière-Charpentier-Beauchamp

Comédie-ballet by Voltaire-Rameau

  • La Princesse de Navarre (1745)

swell

  • Bartlet, M. Elisabeth C., "Comédie lyrique" and "Comédie-ballet", in Stanley, Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (I, pp. 910–909), Grove (Oxford University Press) , New York, 1997 ( ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2 )
  • Sawkins, Lionel, "Haute-contre", ibidem (II, pp. 668-69)
  • Caruselli, Salvatore (ed.), Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica (III, article: “Lully, Giovanni Battista”), Longanesi & C. Periodici SpA, Rome
  • Le magazine de l'opéra baroque