Philippe Quinault
Philippe Quinault (born June 3, 1635 in Paris ; † November 26, 1688 ) was a French poet who wrote text books for both spoken and musical theater and was best known as a librettist and assistant to Jean-Baptiste Lully . Together with this he helped the French opera to break through in competition with the Italian style.
When he became Lully's lyricist in 1674, the epoch of the “tragédie lyrique” began, the great tragic opera, to which Christoph Willibald Gluck , for example , followed up later - in the transition to the Enlightenment . The librettos Quinaults have affinity with the classical tragedy of Corneille and Racine and had success, because the French preferred unlike the Italians an orderly, content challenging textbook (see also Querelle des Bouffons ).
Quinault's most successful libretto and at the same time his last work for the stage was Armide (1686). The theme of the conflict between paganism and Christianity, from which Christianity emerges victorious, he chose at the behest of the king. With the pompous performance a year after the dissolution of the Edict of Nantes, he seemed to want to set a monument in his fight against paganism.
The Quinault Pass on Alexander I Island in Antarctica is named in his honor.
Web links
- Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
- Literature by and about Philippe Quinault in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
- Works by and about Philippe Quinault in the German Digital Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Quinault, Philippe |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1635 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 26, 1688 |