The opera opens with a Prologue in which the goddesses Glory and Wisdom summarize the plot and (obliquely) praise the king.ĪCT ONE Armide has captured some crusaders in Damascus, but is obsessed with Renaud whom she cannot defeat. The work was an immediate success and became a staple of the French repertoire. Unusually for the era, the opera centres almost entirely on the title character and her conflicting emotions. Quinault retired after Armide, which premiered in 1686, although Lully wrote two more operas before his death the following year.īased on an epic poem by Italian poet, Torquato Tasso, and set during the First Crusade, the story is that of the sorceress Armide who falls in love with her sworn enemy Renaud. They had worked together since Lully’s first opera, Les Jetes de I’Amour et de Bacchus in 1672. Chaconne des Scaramouches, Trivelins et Arlequins 12:56Īrmide was the last of a series of lyric tragedies by Lully and his long-time librettist, Philippe Quinault. L’Entrée des Scaramouches, Trivelins et Arlequins 11:47 Marche pour la Cérémonie des Turcs 09:18 The style of both text and music is light-hearted and satirical, with frequent tongue-in-cheek musical references to both the Turkish style and other modern musical fashions. The inclusion of music and dancing tutors in the plot allows for further blending of music, dance, and drama in one work. (He teaches the “middle-class gentleman” of the title how to behave in society.) The first interlude, for example, consists of the story’s dancing tutor demonstrating ballet steps. The work features musical interludes between acts which, in effect, form part of the play itself. Lully and the playwright Moliere had already collaborated on other comedy-ballets theatrical works that incorporated music and dance into the spoken drama - but it was with this work that they reached the pinnacle of the genre. This work came out of a renewed interest in Turkish culture in France following a rare visit to the French court by the Turkish envoy. Lully died a wealthy man, able to command the highest ticket prices in Paris for the splendid entertainments he put on. Fortunately, his gifts as a musician were equal to his skills as an intriguer, and in such works as Cadmus et Hermione (1673), Alceste (1674), Atys (1676), and Armide (1686)- composed, as were nearly all of his operas, to librettos by Philippe Quinault-he achieved an extremely elegant yet lively fusion of ballet, choral music, and solo singing highlighted by richly varied airs and duets, expressively charged recitatives, and vibrant orchestral colorism. With this coup, Lully put himself firmly in control of opera in France. Sensing the profit that awaited him-and taking advantage of the scandal that ensued when Perrin’s partners failed to pay those who had created Pomone-Lully in 1672 persuaded the king to withdraw the monopoly from Perrin and award it to him. In due course Perrin and some perfidious business associates produced Pomone (1671), to music by Robert Cambert the first French opera and the first opera of any kind to be publicly performed in France, it was an overnight success. Lully professed to be unperturbed when, in 1669, the librettist Pierre Perrin was granted letters patent by the king to form an opera company. (When Moliere pocketed a disproportionate share of the proceeds from their joint ventures, the relationship cooled. His work as a violinist and orchestra leader won him a sterling reputation, which grew even more lustrous as a result of his collaboration with the playwright Moliere on a series of comedie-ballets beginning in 1664. In 1653 the king appointed him composer of instrumental music, and from that post he began a steady ascent to the top of French musical life, receiving the title of superintendent of the king’s chamber music in 1661. He entered the service of Louis XIV in 1652, when the Sun King was 14 years old. While working in that capacity he completed his musical education, studying harpsichord and composition, and became an accomplished dancer. He left Italy for Paris in 1646 to serve as an Italian tutor to Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orleans, a cousin of Louis XIV. The boy probably received his musical education from Franciscan friars in Florence, learning to play the guitar and violin. His father, of peasant stock, married a miller’s daughter and took over the business. His works played a dominant role in establishing many of the stylistic conventions of the French Baroque and of tragedie lyrique, including the five-part division of orchestral strings (violins, three sizes of viola, and basses) and the use of the French overture and accompanied recitative.
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