Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Le

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Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Le (The would-be gentleman). Comédie-ballet in 5 acts by Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), written in 1670 for court of Louis XIV. Mus. for f.p. comp. by Lully. In 1912, for the first version of Ariadne auf Naxos, R. Strauss comp. incid. mus. for adaptation by Hofmannsthal (Der Bürger als Edelmann). Some of Lully's mus. was quoted. In 1916, for second version of Ariadne auf Naxos, the play was abandoned and Strauss expanded the incid. mus. in 1917 to 17 items for a further adaptation of Le bourgeois gentilhomme by Hofmannsthal. This was f.p. Berlin, 9 April 1918. From this Strauss arr. a Suite for orch. comprising 9 movts., f.p. Vienna 1920; f. Eng. p. Manchester 1921.

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Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Le

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