The Ballet Comique de la Reine (at the time spelled Balet comique de la Royne) was an elaborate court spectacle performed on October 15, 1581, during the reign of Henry III of France, in the large hall of the Hôtel de Bourbon, adjacent to the Louvre Palace in Paris. [1] It is often referred to as the first ballet de cour . [2]
The Ballet Comique de la Reine was created under the auspices of Henry III's mother, the dowager queen Catherine de' Medici, as part of the wedding celebrations for the Duke de Joyeuse and Queen Louise of Lorraine's sister, Marguerite de Vaudemont. [3] The ballet was choreographed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx and was the first piece to combine poetry, music, design and dance according to the rules of Jean-Antoine de Baïf's Académie de Poésie et de Musique. The ballet was inspired by the enchantress, Circe, from Homer's Odyssey . The pricey production lasted five and half hours and the Queen and King both participated in the performance. The Queen, along with a group of lady court dancers arrived on a fountain that was three tiers high dressed as dryads. The dancers were entering and exiting from both sides of the set, which was unusual for previous court ballets. The ballet was also made in hopes of bringing resolution to the religious hardship that caused the French people to separate. Circe was a symbol of civil war, while the restoration of peace at the end of the ballet represented the country's hopes for the future. [4] [5]
Nicolas Filleul de La Chesnaye, the King's almoner, wrote the text, sets and costumes were designed by Jacques Patin. [6] The music was provided by Jacques Salmon, maitre de la musique de la chambre de Roi, and a certain "Sieur de Beaulieu." This composer was identified as "Lambert de Beaulieu" by Fétis' in his Biographie universelle, following a probable error in a letter by Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor, but is today identified with the bass singer Girard de Beaulieu who with his wife, the Italian soprano Violante Doria themselves sung the airs to Circé. [7]
The final nine measures of the first ballet, labelled "Le Son de la clochette auquel Circé sortit de son jardin" (the sound of the bell at which Circe leaves her garden), contain a tune that forms the basis of a nineteenth-century arrangement by Henri Ghys, which the latter mistakenly attributed to the air "Amaryllis" composed by Louis XIII. [8] In Japan, this arrangement was given Japanese lyrics and introduced as "Amaryllis" on NHK's Minna no Uta series in 1968. The tune has since become well known as a French folk song there, and its melody can be heard today as a chime signaling the hour over the PA systems of some schools and rural municipalities.
Likely as a result of its popularity in Japan, it was selected as the tune that plays when a Zojirushi rice cooker finishes its job. [9]
Clément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876) and the opera Lakmé (1883), which includes the well-known "Flower Duet".
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1582.
Ballet de cour is the name given to ballets performed in the 16th and 17th centuries at courts.
Comic ballet is a subcategory of narrative ballet, and denotes a dramatic work of a light or comic nature. Catherine d'Medici enjoyed the Italian custom of staging entertainments where classical or allegorical legends were retold through music and dancing, and she introduced this custom to France. It was Catherine's court festival director, Baltazarini da Belgiojoso who staged and choreographed the 'Ballet Comique de la Reine'. This ballet was presented at the Petit Bourbon on 15 October 1581, and related the story of Circe.
Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, originally Baldassare de Belgiojoso was an Italian violinist, composer, and choreographer.
Tempe Restored was a Caroline era masque, written by Aurelian Townshend and designed by Inigo Jones, and performed at Whitehall Palace on Shrove Tuesday, 14 February 1632. It was significant as an early instance in which a woman appeared in a speaking role in a public stage performance in England.
Jacques Aubert, also known as Jacques Aubert le Vieux, was a French composer and violinist of the Baroque period. From 1727 to 1746, he was a member of the Vingt-quatre Violons du Roy; from 1728 to 1752, he was the first violinist with the Paris Opera orchestra; and from 1729 to 1740, he frequently and successfully appeared as a soloist with the Concert Spirituel, performing, among other works, concertos for violin and orchestra of his own composition.
Ballet is a formalized form of dance with its origins in the Italian Renaissance courts of 15th and 16th centuries. Ballet spread from Italy to France with the help of Catherine de' Medici, where ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. An early example of Catherine's development of ballet is through 'Le Paradis d' Amour', a piece of work presented at the wedding of her daughter Marguerite de Valois to Henry of Navarre. Aristocratic money was responsible for the initial stages of development in 'court ballet', as it was royal money that dictated the ideas, literature and music used in ballets that were created to primarily entertain the aristocrats of the time. The first formal 'court ballet' ever recognized was staged in 1573, 'Ballet des Polonais'. In true form of royal entertainment, 'Ballet des Polonais' was commissioned by Catherine de' Medici to honor the Polish ambassadors who were visiting Paris upon the accession of Henry of Anjou to the throne of Poland. In 1581, Catherine de' Medici commissioned another court ballet, Ballet Comique de la Reine, however it was her compatriot, Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, who organized the ballet. Catherine de' Medici and Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx were responsible for presenting the first court ballet ever to apply the principles of Baif's Academie, by integrating poetry, dance, music and set design to convey a unified dramatic storyline. Moreover, the early organization and development of 'court ballet' was funded by, influenced by and produced by the aristocrats of the time, fulfilling both their personal entertainment and political propaganda needs.
Catherine de' Medici's court festivals were a series of lavish and spectacular entertainments, sometimes called magnificences, laid on by Catherine de' Medici, the queen consort of France from 1547 to 1559 and queen mother from 1559 until her death in 1589. As queen consort of Henry II of France, Catherine showed interest in the arts and theatre, but it was not until she attained real political and financial power as queen mother that she began the series of tournaments and entertainments that dazzled her contemporaries and continue to fascinate scholars. Biographer Leonie Frieda suggests that "Catherine, more than anyone, inaugurated the fantastic entertainments for which later French monarchs also became renowned".
Catherine de' Medici was a patron of the arts made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance. Catherine was inspired by the example of her father-in-law, King Francis I of France, who had hosted the leading artists of Europe at his court. As a young woman, she witnessed at first hand the artistic flowering stimulated by his patronage. As governor and regent of France, Catherine set out to imitate Francis's politics of magnificence. In an age of civil war and declining respect for the monarchy, she sought to bolster royal prestige through lavish cultural display.
Italian ballet is the training methods and aesthetic qualities seen in classical ballet in Italy. Ballet has a long history in Italy, and it is widely believed that the earliest predecessor of modern-day ballet originated in the Italian courts of the Renaissance. Two predominant training systems are used to teach Italian ballet today: the Cecchetti method, devised by Enrico Cecchetti, and that of the La Scala Theatre Ballet School.
Ensemble Elyma is an early music ensemble specialising in the baroque musical heritage of Latin America, led by Gabriel Garrido.
Margaret Mary McGowan CBE was a British dance historian and historian of early modern France. Her work was mainly focused on the late Renaissance and the fin-de-siècle period at the end of the nineteenth century. She was a chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres (2020), a winner of the Wolfson History Prize (2009), a member of the British Academy and an emerita research professor at the University of Sussex.
Amaryllis is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species.
Girard de Beaulieu, better known by the incorrectly recorded name Lambert de Beaulieu was a French bass singer, instrumentalist, and composer. He was employed at the court of Henri III as basse singer and composer from 1559. He was associated with the Académie de Baïf, one of whose aristocratic poets, Nicolas Filleul de La Chesnaye, the king's almoner, was to provide the lyrics for the ballet Circé in the first French ballet de cour, the Balet Comique de la Royne of 1581, for which Beaulieu and Jacques Salmon provided the music. Choreography and overall direction were provided by the Italian dancing master Baltazarini, known as Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx. Sets and costumes were provided by Jacques Patin.
Violante Doria, also known as Yolande or Yolante, was an Italian soprano from Genoa. She was considered to be one of “the most successful musicians in France during the reigns of the last Valois kings.” She was married to bass singer Girard de Beaulieu who was a well-known and important singer of the royal court from as early as 1572 until the last year of his life in 1590.” The couple played a large role in the creation of the French ballet de cour, the Balet comique de la royne, in 1581. The successful careers of both Doria and her husband were an important part of structuring the music of the royal court and show the significance in the rise of chamber music.
Nicolas Filleul de La Chesnaye was a French poet. He was professor at the College of Harcourt, Eure where in 1563, he produced Achille (1563). His texts were used for the Ballet Comique de la Reine in 1581.
Jacques Patin was a French painter, decorator, illustrator and engraver.
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