Opera ballet
The Opéra-ballet was a subgenus of French opera of the High Baroque .
It was brought into being at the Paris Opera in 1695 with the performance of the play Le Ballet des saisons based on a libretto by Jean Pic . The music was compiled from the work of Jean-Baptiste Lully and supplemented and arranged by Pascal Collasse . André Campra's L'Europe galante appeared two years later and is regarded as a prime example of this sub-genre of French baroque opera.
A stage play in which singing brought the action forward was considered an opera in France at the time, and one that could not be classified under Pastorale or tragédie en musique could be called ballet , even if it was not exclusively danced. Although the term opéra-ballet was often chosen later for Lully's tragédies en musique , the latter had the characteristic that each unit had its own characters and plot. Accordingly, livret called entrées rather than acts . A comprehensive framework for action could e.g. B. can be given by the title, or individual storylines came together in an epilogue. The entrées of the pieces from the fragments subcategory were largely unconnected - Campras Les fêtes vénitiennes is a particularly recognizable type.
Campra and de la Motte had at L'Europe galante not based on extant from mythology, but can act Allerweltspersonen at the present time. With the trick of a stage on the stage, they could also offer the audience a da capo aria - previously frowned upon in French opera. The new trend with an Italian influence delighted some of the audience, others had reservations. It should be French, in the sublime style of the great tragédies en musique developed by Lully . In 1700 Michel de La Barre did not help to put the plot of his triomphe des arts into antiquity: Houdar de La Motte, the librettist, wrote the text often thoughtlessly, wrote a "Dom Henriques Guiscardi" in a lettre that Opera has arrived at insignificance and simplicity and great things like Lully's Thésée , Alceste , Phaéton or Roland have to be restored. Ironically, Henry Guichard seems to be hiding behind "Dom Henriques Guiscardi" , who made Lully's life difficult like no other. In 1702, François Raguenet published the Parallèle des Italiens et des Français pour la musique et les opéras, a text, also with arguments, useful for the Italian trend. Lecerf responded with a work praising the virtues of French music, and there was a quarrel in the world which for a long time had repercussions in the history of the Paris Opera Academy.