Zoom Presentation - The Comedy-Ballets of Molière and Lully - Friday 2 February - 7.30pm with Emilie Capulet

Comedy ballets were a type of entertainment combining music, dance and theatre which were a huge hit at the court of the Sun King. Moliere (1622-1673), whose birthday we celebrated in 2022 (400 years since his birth) was the inventor of the genre. He collaborated with the greatest composers of the period, including Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) and Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) producing masterpieces such as Le Malade Imaginaire (titled in English both as The Imaginary Invalid, and The Hypochondriac) and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (The Would-Be Gentleman). Comedy-ballets were composed to order for royal festivities at Versailles or Chambord, and are an example of the grandiose spectacles that contributed to the development of French opera.