Comédie ballet

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Julia Prest (University of St Andrews)

Ed. by David Williams, University of Sheffield
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Ballet
Theatre

Dates

Date of occurrence 1661-1673

Places

France (Location)

Genres and Modes

Comedy

Comédie-ballet is a theatrical genre inextricably bound up with the name of Molière (1622-73 – see entry). The term refers specifically to his dozen or so comedies written to entertain Louis XIV (1638-1715) and his court and which include substantial amounts of music and dancing. In the preface to his published edition of Les Fâcheux (1661), Molière narrates how this, the first comédie-ballet, came into being by chance. He and his troupe had been invited to perform a comedy as part of a great fête, organized by Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance, Nicolas Foucquet (1615-80). The fête took place on 17 August 1661 at Foucquet’s…

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1957 words

Citation: Prest, Julia. "Comédie ballet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 December 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1351, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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