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63-408: Molière had fallen out with the powerful court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully , with whom he had pioneered the comédie-ballet form a decade earlier, and had opted for the collaboration with Charpentier. Le malade imaginaire was Molière's last work. He collapsed during his fourth performance as Argan on 17 February and died soon after. The play opens with Argan, a severe hypochondriac , going through

126-488: A century. Unlike Italian opera of the day, which was rapidly moving toward opera seria with its alternating recitative and da capo airs, in Lully's operas the focus was on drama, expressed by a variety of vocal forms: monologs, airs for two or three voices, rondeaux and French-style da capo airs where the chorus alternates with singers, sung dances, and vaudeville songs for a few secondary characters. In like manner

189-487: A dance troupe that has come to amuse him. There is a dance interlude as Gypsies dance and sing about the joys of young love and the pain when it proves false. Now that they have both enjoyed the interlude, Beralde wants to have a chat with his brother, but Argan insists he must take a short walk first (he's had another "injection"). Once Argan is gone, Toinette begs Beralde not to give up on helping his niece. He says that he will do everything he can. Toinette hints that she has

252-436: A doctor for a son-in-law. He replies that since he is always ill, he thought it would be a good idea to have a doctor in the family. Then he could have Thomas Diafoirus' services as doctor all the time, not to mention the services of his father and his uncle for free. Toinette will not take his hypochondria seriously and tells him that she knows Angelique will never agree to that marriage. More than that, Toinette downright forbids

315-517: A doctor so unsuited for her. Argan says that if the doctor is good enough for him, he is good enough for Angelique. Beralde wants to hear no more of this. He points out to Argan that he (Argan) is one of the healthiest people he (Beralde) knows and that Argan's infatuation with doctors and apothecaries is bad for him and everyone else. The doctors, he says, know nothing about the workings of the human body and therefore can do nothing to cure it. The doctors are only educated enough to give fancy Latin names to

378-471: A few days. Argan returns and expects to surprise his daughter when he tells her that someone has asked to marry her. He is shocked to find that she not only knows about it, but could not be happier. Unfortunately, Angelique thinks he's been talking about Cléante, while her father has promised his daughter to Thomas Diafoirus, the son of a respected Paris doctor who is soon to be made a doctor himself. Toinette asks him why, with all his money, Argan would want

441-448: A furious temper, having been told that his cure was sent back, and rages at Argan. He refuses to treat Argan any more and says that within a few days Argan will go from one horrible disease to another and finally die. With that, he storms out. Left with Beralde again, Argan cries and says that he can already feel his system shutting down, just as Mr. Purgon had told him. Beralde thinks he is crazy and tells him so, but Argan won't listen. He

504-418: A guest as Angelique is introduced to her fiancé, Thomas Diafoirus. When Mr. Diafoirus and his son Thomas enter, Mr. Diafoirus tells Thomas to begin. Thomas asks if he should start with Argan and, once his father tells him to, he greets Argan with a florid prepared speech. Once finished, he asks his father if that was satisfactory and if he should continue. He has a fancy prepared speech ready for every member of

567-439: A notary; he intends to change his will to include (and heavily favour) Béline. She dramatically begs him not to think of such things, but just happens to have the notary to hand. Béline repeatedly claims that she doesn't care about the money, but double-checks the amounts all the same. The notary warns Argan that he can't leave his wife anything, but instructs him on several devious and underhanded methods whereby Béline could get all

630-454: A plan herself, but cannot tell what it is because her master has returned. Now that Argan has returned, Beralde first asks his brother why he would want to send his daughter to a convent. Beralde points out that sending them to a convent was Béline's idea and suggests that she might want the children out of the way for her own reasons, but Argan gets angry and leaps to her defense. Then Beralde asks Argan why he would want to marry his daughter to

693-501: A point of not inviting Lully to perform Armide at Versailles the following year. Lully died from gangrene , having struck his foot with his long conducting staff during a performance of his Te Deum to celebrate Louis XIV's recovery from surgery. He refused to have his toe amputated. This resulted in gangrene propagating through his body and ultimately infecting the greater part of his brain, causing his death. He died in Paris and

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756-560: A radical revolution in the style of the dances of the court itself. In the place of the slow and stately movements which had prevailed until then, he introduced lively ballets of rapid rhythm , often based on well-known dance types such as gavottes , menuets , rigaudons and sarabandes . Through his collaboration with playwright Molière , a new music form emerged during the 1660s: the comédie-ballet which combined theater, comedy, incidental music and ballet. The popularity of these plays, with their sometimes lavish special effects, and

819-624: A single sung courante, added after the work's premiere at Nicolas Fouquet 's sumptuous chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte . Their collaboration began in earnest in 1664 with Le Mariage forcé . More collaborations followed, some of them conceived for fetes at the royal court, and others taking the form of incidental music ( intermèdes ) for plays performed at command performances at court and also in Molière's Parisian theater. In 1672, Lully broke with Molière, who turned to Marc-Antoine Charpentier . Having acquired Pierre Perrin 's opera privilege, Lully became

882-729: A song for the party. Cléante gives her a scroll of music with no words and tells everyone that it is a short piece from an improvised opera. Cléante then sings his love and his questions to Angelique in the guise of this opera. She answers him in the same form, telling him that she really loves him and despises the man her father wants her to marry. Their song continues until Argan stops it, thinking it dreadfully inappropriate. He sends Cléante away. Argan tells Angelique to pledge herself to Thomas, but she refuses. She suggests that they ought to get to know each other first. Argan, however, disagrees. He says that there will be plenty of time for getting to know each other once they are married. As for Thomas, it

945-493: A way to tell Cléante of the intended marriage. Cléante shows up in disguise at the door, surprising Toinette. He has come pretending to be a substitute for Angelique's music teacher so he can talk to her in private. However, when Argan learns of the "music master's" arrival, he decides that he wants to watch the music lesson, spoiling everyone's plans. When Angelique comes in, she is shocked to find Cléante there, but manages to cover her reaction. Then Argan invites Cléante to stay as

1008-540: A while. Argan is left with the two doctors and begs them to examine him. It is very obvious they do not know what they are doing. However, they make up lies which are good enough to convince Argan the hypochondriac. On her way out, Béline stops to tell Argan that she saw Angelique talking with a young man who ran away as soon as they were spotted. She tells him that his youngest daughter, Louison, saw everything. Argan calls Louison to him for an interrogation. After much coaxing and Louison faking her own death, she tells him that

1071-415: Is alive. Argan agrees to their marriage, saying that she and Cléante can marry... as long as Cléante becomes a doctor. He agrees, but Beralde stops him. He suggests that Argan should just become a doctor himself, since no disease would dare to attack a doctor. Argan approves of the idea and Beralde says he knows a number of members of the medical faculty who can make Argan a doctor that very night. He invites

1134-476: Is dead, she is inconsolable. She cries and says that she has lost one of the dearest things in the world to her. She is even more upset because she has lost him when he was still angry with her. Cléante comes in to comfort her, but it is no good. She tells Cléante that they can never get married now; since her father's last wishes were that she be a nun, that is what she will do. With that, Argan gets up and hugs his daughter. She and Cléante are both delighted that he

1197-462: Is dead. Béline does not shed a tear, but is instead overjoyed that Argan is finally dead. She calls him many horrible names, then asks Toinette to help her cover up his death until she can get his money. With that, Argan gets up and surprises Béline. He shouts that he's glad to have found her out as she runs off. Just then they hear Angelique coming, and Toinette suggests he do the same thing to find out how she feels. When Angelique hears that her father

1260-432: Is enough for him that his father has instructed him to be in love with her. Angelique tries to argue the point with him, but the arguing proves useless. Argan gets angry with Angelique's willfulness and everyone's failure to pay attention to him during the fight. He tells Angelique that she has four days to decide. Either she marries Thomas, or she goes into a convent. Angelique runs out and Béline decides to go to town for

1323-459: Is often credited with introducing new instruments into the orchestra, but this legend needs closer scrutiny. He continued to use recorders in preference to the newer transverse flute, and the "hautbois" he used in his orchestra were transitional instruments, somewhere between shawms and so-called Baroque oboes . Lully created French-style opera as a musical genre ( tragédie en musique or tragédie lyrique ). Concluding that Italian-style opera

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1386-434: Is ready to talk to him, but Argan must leave the room for a short while (presumably the result of an "injection" [i.e., enema] he's just had). While he is out, Angelique takes the opportunity to talk to Toinette. We quickly find out that she has been talking almost non-stop about the qualities of a young man named Cléante since she met him at a play six days ago. She expects Cléante to ask her father if he can marry her, within

1449-566: Is sure that he is already dying. Toinette comes in and says that a new doctor has arrived who wants to treat Argan. She doesn't know who the man is, but says that he looks exactly like her. Argan is desperate and consents to see him. Toinette comes in dressed as a doctor and claims to be one of the world's greatest doctors who has come to see Argan, one of the world's most illustrious patients. She tells Argan that all of his previous doctors were idiots who have totally misdiagnosed him. Argan tells him everything that has been prescribed, and Toinette (as

1512-646: Is the use of the basso continuo as the driving force behind the music. The pitch standard for the French opera at the time was about 392 Hz for A above middle C, a whole tone lower than modern practice where A is usually 440 Hz . Lully's music is known for its power, liveliness in its fast movements and its deep emotional character in its slower movements. Some of his most popular works are his passacailles ( passacaglias ) and chaconnes , which are dance movements found in many of his works such as Armide or Phaëton . The influence of Lully's music produced

1575-457: The Ballet des saisons (1661), the lament "Rochers, vous êtes sourds" and Orpheus's sarabande "Dieu des Enfers", from the Ballet de la naissance de Vénus (1665). Intermèdes became part of a new genre, the comédie-ballet , in 1661, when Molière described them as "ornaments which have been mixed with the comedy" in his preface to Les Fâcheux  [ fr ] . "Also, to avoid breaking

1638-542: The L.A. Theatre Works recorded and released a production ( ISBN   978-1-58081-360-0 ) featuring an adaptation by Beth Miles (who also directed the production) based on the John Wood translation (without the tragic twist ending; see above) and performed by The Actors' Gang. To date, this is the only English full-length recording of this play. Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully (28 November [ O.S. 18 November] 1632 – 22 March 1687)

1701-433: The "doctor" leaves and Toinette comes back on as herself, supposedly outraged that the departing "doctor" has been trying to take liberties with her (wanting to "take [her] pulse"). Beralde then tries to convince his brother that since he has already fallen out with Purgon, he should consider a different marriage for his daughter. But Argan wants her put into a convent as a punishment for her willfulness. Beralde suggests that

1764-681: The Italian method of dividing musical numbers into separate recitatives and arias , choosing instead to combine and intermingle the two, for dramatic effect. He and Quinault also opted for quicker story development, which was more to the taste of the French public. Lully is credited with the invention in the 1650s of the French overture , a form used extensively in the Baroque and Classical eras, especially by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel . Lully's grand motets were written for

1827-657: The Twenty-Four Violins or Grands Violons ("Great Violins"), who only slowly were abandoning the polyphony and divisions of past decades. When he became surintendant de la musique de la chambre du roi in 1661, the Great Violins also came under Lully's control. He relied mainly on the Little Violins for court ballets. Lully's collaboration with the playwright Molière began with Les Fâcheux  [ fr ] in 1661, when Lully provided

1890-459: The beginning and two at the end, and one between each of the three acts. Lully's intermèdes reached their apogee in 1670–1671, with the elaborate incidental music he composed for Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Psyché . After his break with Molière, Lully turned to opera; but he collaborated with Jean Racine for a fete at Sceaux in 1685, and with Campistron for an entertainment at Anet in 1686. Most of Molière's plays were first performed for

1953-428: The bill from his apothecary (the pharmacist) item by item. He pays out only about half of what is on the bill. That done, he calls for his maid, Toinette. When she fails to appear immediately he shouts and calls her names until she arrives. Toinette is not interested in putting up with Argan's temper, so she mocks his rage. Eventually he gives up trying to scold her and asks her to call in his daughter, Angelique. Angelique

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2016-434: The blood ." Argan asks if Thomas is to become a doctor for the rich at court. Mr. Diafoirus says he much prefers to treat the common people. He adds that with ordinary people he is less accountable to anybody and, as long as procedure is followed, there is no need to worry so much about the results; the rich are much more difficult since they actually seem to expect to be cured. Argan then tells Cléante to help Angelique sing

2079-607: The chorus performed in several combinations: the entire chorus, the chorus singing as duos, trios or quartets, the dramatic chorus, the dancing chorus. The intrigue of the plot culminated in a vast tableau, for example, the sleep scene in Atys , the village wedding in Roland , or the funeral in Alceste . Soloists, chorus and dancers participated in this display, producing astonishing effects thanks to machinery. In contrast to Italian opera,

2142-539: The director of the Académie Royale de Musique , that is, the royal opera, which performed in the Palais-Royal . Between 1673 and 1687, he produced a new opera almost yearly and fiercely protected his monopoly over that new genre. After Queen Marie-Thérèse 's death in 1683 and the king's secret marriage to Mme de Maintenon , devotion came to the fore at court. The king's enthusiasm for opera dissipated; he

2205-470: The doctor) contradicts every one, saying his doctors were ignorant quacks. She goes on to make him realize that not everything doctors tell him is true; she blames his one arm for taking up all the nutrients, so he should have it amputated so as to make his other arm stronger. She also says that one of his eyes is taking up all the nutrients that go to it, so if he has it removed, his remaining eye will see much better. After spouting more of this medical nonsense,

2268-543: The engraving, he stands to the left, on the lowest level, his right arm extended and holding a scroll of paper with which to beat time. (The bronze ensemble has survived and is part of the collections of the Museum of Versailles.) Titon honored Lully as: the prince of French musicians, ... the inventor of that beautiful and grand French music, such as our operas and the grand pieces for voices and instruments that were only imperfectly known before him. He brought it [music] to

2331-432: The family. Everyone has a seat and Argan praises Thomas. Mr. Diafoirus says that he is very pleased with his son. He says that as a child he was never very bright or exciting and he never has had any wit or liveliness, but he has sound judgement. What Mr. Diafoirus is most happy about in his son, though, is that he blindly adheres to the ancient medical beliefs and refuses to believe the new modern ideas like " circulation of

2394-466: The fourteen-year-old entered Mademoiselle's service; from 1647 to 1652 he served as her "chamber boy" ( garçon de chambre ). He probably honed his musical skills by working with Mademoiselle's household musicians and with composers Nicolas Métru , François Roberday and Nicolas Gigault . The teenager's talents as a guitarist, violinist, and dancer quickly won him the nicknames "Baptiste", and " le grand baladin " (great street-artist). When Mademoiselle

2457-698: The full in his operas. For example, the chaconne that ends the Ballet de la Raillerie (1659) has 51 couplets plus an extra free part; in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) he added a vocal line to the chaconne for the Scaramouches . The first menuets appear in the Ballet de la Raillerie (1659) and the Ballet de l'Impatience (1661). In Lully's ballets one can also see the emergence of concert music, for example, pieces for voice and instruments that could be excerpted and performed alone and that prefigure his operatic airs: "Bois, ruisseau, aimable verdure" from

2520-603: The genre blossomed and markedly changed in character. At first, as composer of instrumental music for the King's chamber, Lully wrote overtures, dances, dance-like songs, descriptive instrumental pieces such as combats, and parody-like récits with Italian texts. He was so captivated by the French overture that he wrote four of them for the Ballet d'Alcidiane . The development of his instrumental style can be discerned in his chaconnes . He experimented with all types of compositional devices and found new solutions that he later exploited to

2583-450: The gypsy dancers back and they perform a ceremony in song and dance that, they claim, makes Argan a doctor (in the translation by John Wood, Argan suffers a heart attack during the dance and dies, whereupon the dancers stop dancing and assume deaths-head masks) . An hour-long version adapted by Richard MacDonald was broadcast on the NBC radio series Great Plays on 15 December 1940. In 1998,

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2646-431: The high tenor voice by that name), taille ( baritenor ), quinte , and basse , divided as follows: one voice of violins, three voices of violas, one voice of cello, and basse de viole (viole, viola da gamba). He also utilized guitar, lute , archlute , theorbo , harpsichord, organ, oboe, bassoon, recorder , flute, brass instruments (natural trumpet) and various percussion instruments ( castanets , timpani ). He

2709-404: The man claiming to be Angelique's music teacher came to her window and told her over and over how he loved her. Argan's brother, Beralde, who is a lawyer, comes to visit him. He is not convinced by Argan's claims about how sick he is. Beralde tells his brother that he has a match for Angelique. At the mention of his daughter's name, Argan flies into a rage and Beralde calms him by telling him about

2772-420: The money. Meanwhile, outside the study, Toinette and Angelique have a chance to talk in private. Toinette warns Angelique that her stepmother is plotting to get her inheritance, but Angelique does not care, so long as she is allowed to marry as she wishes. She begs Toinette to help her foil her stepmother and father's plans, a proposition to which Toinette is only too delighted to agree. She also endeavors to find

2835-482: The peak of perfection and was the father of our most illustrious musicians working in that musical form. ... Lully entertained the king infinitely, by his music, by the way he performed it, and by his witty remarks. The prince was also very fond of Lully and showered him with benefits in a most gracious way. Lully's music was written during the Middle Baroque period, 1650 to 1700. Typical of Baroque music

2898-457: The point of departure was always a verse libretto, in most cases by the verse dramatist Philippe Quinault . For the dance pieces, Lully would hammer out rough chords and a melody on the keyboard, and Quinault would invent words. For the recitative, Lully imitated the speech melodies and dramatic emphasis used by the best actors in the spoken theater. His attentiveness to transferring theatrical recitation to sung music shaped French opera and song for

2961-450: The real reason is that Béline wants it. Argan begins to get angry again, but Toinette steps in and says she has a solution to prove to Beralde how much Béline loves her husband. She suggests that Argan lie down on the couch and pretend to be dead. Then everyone will see how she really feels about him by her grief. Everyone thinks this is an excellent plan. Beralde hides as Béline comes in. She finds Toinette crying and Toinette tells her Argan

3024-564: The reins of government in 1661, he named Lully superintendent of the royal music and music master of the royal family. In December 1661, the Florentine was granted letters of naturalization. Thus, when he married Madeleine Lambert (1643–1720), the daughter of the renowned singer and composer Michel Lambert in 1662, Giovanni Battista Lulli declared himself to be "Jean-Baptiste Lully, escuyer [ squire ], son of Laurent de Lully, gentilhomme Florentin [Florentine gentleman]". The latter assertion

3087-484: The royal chapel, usually for vespers or for the King's daily Low Mass. Lully did not invent the genre, he built upon it. Grand motets often were psalm settings, but for a time during the 1660s Lully used texts written by Pierre Perrin , a neo-Latin poet. Lully's petit motets were probably composed for the nuns at the convent of the Assumption, rue Saint-Honoré. When Lully began dancing and composing for court ballets,

3150-423: The royal court. With five exceptions, each of Lully's operas was described as a tragédie mise en musique , or tragedy set to music. The exceptions were: Bellérophon , Cadmus et Hermione , and Psyché , each called simply a tragédie ; and Les fêtes de l'Amour et de Bacchus , described as a pastorale , and Acis et Galathée , which is a pastorale héroïque . (The term tragédie lyrique came later.) With Lully,

3213-400: The success and publication of Lully's operas and its diffusion beyond the borders of France, played a crucial role in synthesizing, consolidating and disseminating orchestral organization, scorings, performance practices, and repertory. The instruments in Lully's music were: five voices of strings such as dessus (a higher range than soprano), haute-contre (the instrumental equivalent of

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3276-611: The things they do not comprehend. They will kill their patients with the best of intentions, but they will still be dead. Beralde believes that all one need do is rest and let nature take its course. Mr. Fleurant, the apothecary and Purgon's assistant, comes in with a new remedy for Argan. Beralde asks Argan not to take the remedy and to put it off until tomorrow, but this makes Fleurant very angry and he storms off to tell Dr. Purgon about this interference. Beralde tries once again to get his brother to give up his addiction to doctors, but Argan claims to be too sick. Just then Mr. Purgon enters in

3339-552: The thread of the piece by these interludes, it was deemed advisable to weave the ballet in the best manner one could into the subject, and make but one thing of it and the play." The music for the premiere of Les Fâcheux was composed by Pierre Beauchamp , but Lully later provided a sung courante for act 1, scene 3. With Le Mariage forcé  [ fr ] and La Princesse d'Élide  [ fr ] (1664), intermèdes by Lully began to appear regularly in Molière's plays: for those performances there were six intermèdes, two at

3402-418: The union to happen. This is amazing gall for a servant, and Argan becomes so incensed that he chases Toinette around the room threatening to kill her. Finally he stops, exhausted, and claims he is dying. Hearing the disturbance, Argan's second wife Béline runs in. She soothes Argan, talking to him as one would to a child throwing a temper tantrum. Once his new wife has calmed him, Argan asks if she has contacted

3465-409: The various instrumental genres were present to enrich the overall effect: French overture, dance airs, rondeaux , marches, " simphonies " that painted pictures, preludes, ritournelles . Collected into instrumental suites or transformed into trios, these pieces had enormous influence and affected instrumental music across Europe. The earliest operas were performed at the indoor Bel Air tennis court (on

3528-415: The violin. In 1646, dressed as Harlequin during Mardi Gras and amusing bystanders with his clowning and his violin, the boy attracted the attention of Roger de Lorraine, chevalier de Guise, son of Charles, Duke of Guise , who was returning to France and was looking for someone to converse in Italian with his niece, Mademoiselle de Montpensier ( la Grande Mademoiselle ). Guise took the boy to Paris, where

3591-617: Was a French composer, dancer and instrumentalist of Italian birth, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France and became a French subject in 1661. He was a close friend of the playwright Molière , with whom he collaborated on numerous comédie-ballets , including L'Amour médecin , George Dandin ou le Mari confondu , Monsieur de Pourceaugnac , Psyché and his best known work, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme . Lully

3654-520: Was an untruth. The couple had six children who survived past childhood: Catherine-Madeleine, Louis , Jean-Baptiste , Gabrielle-Hilarie, Jean-Louis and Louis-Marie. From 1661 on, the trios and dances he wrote for the court were promptly published. As early as 1653, Louis XIV made him director of his personal violin orchestra, known as the Petits Violons ("Little Violins"), which was proving to be open to Lully's innovations, as contrasted with

3717-575: Was annoyed by Lully's dissolute life and homosexual encounters. Lully had avoided getting too close to the secret homosexual grouping that had gathered in the court around the Duc de Vendôme , the Comte de Tallard and the Duc de Gramont . But in 1685 he was accused of improper relations with a page boy living in his household called Brunet. Brunet was removed after a police raid, and Lully escaped punishment. However, to show his general displeasure, Louis XIV made

3780-546: Was born on November 28, 1632, in Florence , Grand Duchy of Tuscany , to Lorenzo Lulli and Caterina Del Sera, a Tuscan family of millers. His general education and his musical training during his youth in Florence remain uncertain, but his adult handwriting suggests that he manipulated a quill pen with ease. He used to say that a Franciscan friar gave him his first music lessons and taught him guitar. He also learned to play

3843-485: Was buried in the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires , where his tomb with its marble bust can still be seen. All three of his sons ( Louis Lully , Jean-Baptiste Lully fils , and Jean-Louis Lully ) had musical careers as successive surintendants of the King's Music. Lully himself was posthumously given a conspicuous place on Titon du Tillet 's Parnasse François ("the French Mount Parnassus "). In

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3906-729: Was exiled to the provinces in 1652 after the rebellion known as the Fronde , Lully "begged his leave ... because he did not want to live in the country." The princess granted his request. By February 1653, Lully had attracted the attention of young Louis XIV , dancing with him in the Ballet royal de la nuit . By March 16, 1653, Lully had been made royal composer for instrumental music. His vocal and instrumental music for court ballets gradually made him indispensable. In 1660 and 1662 he collaborated on court performances of Francesco Cavalli 's Xerse and Ercole amante . When Louis XIV took over

3969-526: Was inappropriate for the French language, he and his librettist, Philippe Quinault , a respected playwright, employed the same poetics that dramatists used for verse tragedies: the 12-syllable " alexandrine " and the 10-syllable "heroic" poetic lines of the spoken theater were used for the recitative of Lully's operas and were perceived by their contemporaries as creating a very "natural" effect. Airs, especially if they were based on dances, were by contrast set to lines of less than 8 syllables. Lully also forsook

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