Moliere / Lully : Le Ballet des Jean-Baptiste

Extracts from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, La Pastorale comique…

Happy birthday, Molière! Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre celebrate in music the prince of French playwrights, on the occasion of his 400th anniversary in 2022. Discover the music of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac and La Pastorale Comique in the arias that compose their rarely performed "soundtrack". When Baptiste meets Baptiste...

Back to 1661. The newly married Sun King buried Mazarin and took the reins of the kingdom. That same year, Molière the Parisian and Lully the Florentine presented their first comedy-ballet Les Fâcheux at Fouquet's château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. The following decade, a decade of pleasure and celebration, was marked by their inventions. These pieces, mixing singing and dancing, deploy a cosmopolitan and whimsical universe: Neapolitan rascals around Pourceaugnac, fake Turks with a famous march, welcoming Monsieur Jourdain as the new Mamamouchi. Extravagant carnival scenes call for singers and baladins for lively chaconnes and passepieds. Music again lulls the pastoral sweetness of George Dandin, with its shepherds' tunes from Eden, or the amorous meanderings of Psyché, which unfold in an Italian lament. Supported by the royal favour, the pair extended the orchestra’s forces and used up to five or six voices in the ensembles.

The idyll, alas, was overcome by jealousy and ambition. Envious of the profits received and unfairly shared by Molière from his theatre in the Palais-Royal, Lully took advantage in 1672 of the tuberculosis that struck his former colleague to obtain the exclusive rights to a new form of entertainment: the opera. The Florentine musician continued the adventure of French lyrical art, begun with his playwright friend. When Molière came back to the stage, he could no longer choose the number of his musicians. The fallout was complete. Molière died on stage, during Le Malade Imaginaire set to music by Charpentier. Driving the last nail into his coffin, Lully took over the Palais-Royal theatre from his orphan troupe.

In this programme, the Poème Harmonique's full orchestra and a cast of five singers, among the finest voices of French Baroque, highlight the golden decade of these divided destinies. Ambassador of Molière and Lully since the 2005 triumph of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and a specialist of the delicate and playful madrigals that graced the evenings in the Grand Siècle, Vincent Dumestre celebrates the most famous duo in our history.

Launch performance for the Château de Versailles Spectacles CD

This new concert is made possible thanks to the exceptional support of Madame Aline Foriel-Destezet.

Programme

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687)
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme : Bergerie

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 – 1704)
Le Mariage forcé : trio grotesque

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687)
La pastorale comique : Qu’il est beau qu’il est joli
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac : Piglialo su
George Dandin : la plainte en musique
Les Amants magnifiques : Dormez beaux yeux
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme : Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs

Launching concert of Château de Versailles Spectacles' CD.