Opéra-ballet

A French genre of lyric theatre cultivated in the period between Lully and Rameau (1687-1733). It normally consisted of a prologue and three or four independent acts or entrées. Leading exponents were Campra, Mouret and Montéclair.

A form of lyric theatre in which singing and dancing were presented as equal partners in lavish and spectacular stagings, which were often thin on dramatic content. It was popular in France in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Early examples included Lully's Triomphe de l'amour (1681) and Le Temple de la paix (1685), although the form really came into its own with the works of André Campra, whose productions included L'Europe galante (Paris, 1697), Les Fêtes vénitiennes (Paris 1710), and Les Amours de Vénus et de Mars (1712). J. P. Rameau took the form to its apogee with Les Indes galantes (1735), Les Fêtes d'Hébé (1739), Le temple de la gloire (1745), Platée (1745), and La Guirlande (Paris, 1751). In the 19th century F. Taglioni choreographed several opéra-ballets. In 1997 Mark Morris choreographed a version of Platée for the Royal Opera.

Opéra-ballet was a popular genre of French Baroque opera. It differed from the more elevated tragédie en musique as practised by Jean-Baptiste Lully in several ways. It contained more dance music than the tragédie and the plots were not necessarily derived from Classical mythology and even allowed for the comic elements which Lully had excluded from the tragédie en musique after Thésée (1675). The opéra-ballet consisted of a prologue followed by a number of self-contained acts (also known as entrées), often loosely grouped round a single theme. The individual acts could also be performed independently, in which case they were known as actes de ballet.

The first work in the genre is generally held to be André Campra's L'Europe galante ("Europe in Love") of 1697. Famous later examples are Les élémens (1721) by Destouches, and Les Indes galantes (1735) and Les fêtes d'Hébé (1739) by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse (1743), by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, is also a noted opéra-ballet.

See also

• Category:Opéras-ballets

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