Comedie-Ballet

Comédie-Ballet

Comédie-Ballet, form of entertainment in vogue at the Court of Louis XIV, mingling speech, usually in rhymed couplets and originally of little importance, songs, and dancing, in which the King and his courtiers usually joined. Although the genre was not invented by Molière, he gave it literary form, making the dialogue equal to or even more important than the music. His first comédie-ballet was Les Fâcheux (1661) but the finest example of it is Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1671). Among Molière's collaborators in the preparation of these Court spectacles were Philippe Quinault and, on one occasion, in Psyché (1671), the great Corneille himself. The music was by Lully, who eventually obtained a monopoly of music in Paris which effectively put an end to the development of such ‘plays with music’, and so hastened the overwhelming popularity of opera and operetta.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Comédie-Ballet." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Comédie-Ballet." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ComdieBallet.html

PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Comédie-Ballet." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-ComdieBallet.html

Learn more about citation styles

comédie-ballet

comédie-ballet. Fr. musico-dramatic entertainment devised by Molière and Lully in late 17th cent. Their first collab. was in Le mariage forcé (1664), their last Le bourgeois gentilhomme (1670). Mus. and dance were regarded as complementary to the main plot; the sub-plots were carried on in the intermèdes.

Show all research tools

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • APA

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "comédie-ballet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "comédie-ballet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-comdieballet.html

MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "comédie-ballet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-comdieballet.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

Gretchen Elizabeth Smith. The Performance of Male Nobility in Moliere's...
Magazine article from: Seventeenth-Century News; 9/22/2007
David Bradby and Andrew Calder, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Moliere.(Book...
Magazine article from: Comparative Drama; 12/22/2007
"UNE PARFAITE ET SINCERE BONNE CORRESPONDANCE ET AMITIE": FRENCH-TURKISH...
Magazine article from: The Romanic Review; 3/1/1999

Pictures from Google Image Search

Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture
Click to see an enlarged picture

See more pictures of Comedie-Ballet