Molière / Lully - Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

N°53

€20

When the first notes of the new comédie-ballet, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the fruit of Lully's and Molière's genius, sounded on 14 October 1670, no one could have imagined it would reach such a posterity - four centuries later, the same lightness, vigour and ingenuity still make us laugh!More details

LE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMME

Le Poème Harmonique
Vincent Dumestre, direction

MOLIERE (1622 - 1673) & Jean-Baptiste LULLY (1632-1687)

In 1670, Molière and Lully presented to the King Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, a sumptuous Comédie-Ballet performed by Molière's Troupe, with musicians conducted by Lully, ballets by Pierre Beauchamp, scenery by Carlo Vigarani and Turkish costumes by the Chevalier d'Arvieux. The work was inspired by the ambassador Soliman Musta Aga-Feraga, whom Louis XIV had just kept waiting for long weeks before receiving him, provoking his exasperation which amused the King and the courtiers’ sneer, the whole of Paris mocking the outlandish mores of the envoys of the Great Turk. The idea came to Molière of a plot based on fake Turks, ridiculing a Bourgeois aspiring to nobility: thus, a masterpiece was born, with the dazzling Cérémonie Turque, and at the end a sumptuous Ballet des Nations. The magnificent music of this pillar of French theatre is recorded here in its entirety for the first time by Vincent Dumestre: Glory be to Lully and to Molière!

Recorded from March 23rd to 27th 2021 at the Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles

You can find this programme at the Royal Opera from June 9th to June 19th 2022!

Booklet in French, English, German - Duration: 75'34

→ Find this CD in digital format on our Live Opéra Versailles platform and on all streaming platforms!