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Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully ( – 22 March 1687) 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 citizenship, 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 (play), Psyché'' and his best known work, ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme''. Biography Lully was born on November 28 or 29, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Grand Duchy Of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (; ) was an Italian monarchy located in Central Italy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In the 19th century the population of the Grand Duchy was about 1,815,000 inhabitants. Having brought nearly all Tuscany under his control after conquering the Republic of Siena, Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de' Medici, was elevated by a papal bull of Pope Pius V to Grand Duke of Tuscany on 27 August 1569. The Grand Duchy was ruled by the House of Medici until the extinction of its senior branch in 1737. While not as internationally renowned as the old republic, the grand duchy thrived under the Medici and it bore witness to unprecedented economic and military success under Cosimo I and his sons, until the reign of Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando II, which saw the beginning of the state's long economic decline. That econo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Xerse
''Il Xerse'', usually written ''Xerse'' (; ), is an Italian opera by Francesco Cavalli (specifically, a ''dramma per musica'') about Xerxes I. The libretto was written by Nicolò Minato and was later set by both Giovanni Bononcini ('' Xerse'', 1694) and George Frideric Handel (''Serse'', 1738). Minato's plot outline is loosely based on Book 7 of Herodotus's ''Histories''. The opera, consisting of a prologue and three acts, was composed in 1654 and first performed on 12 January 1655 at the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. It was dedicated to the Ferrarese nobleman Marchese Cornelio Bentivoglio. Background Although Nicolò Minato took the framework of his libretto from the seventh book of Herodotus's ''Histories'', as translated into Italian by Matteo Maria Boiardo in the 15th century, the plot is actually based on a 1651 comedy by Raffaele Tauro, ''L'ingelosite speranze'', which in turn was an Italian adaptation of Lope de Vega's 1625 Spanish comedy ''Lo cierto por lo du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverdi as the dominant and leading opera composer of the mid 17th-century. A central figure of Venetian musical life, Cavalli wrote more than thirty operas, almost all of which premiered in the city's theaters. His best known works include '' Ormindo'' (1644), '' Giasone'' (1649) and '' La Calisto'' (1651). Life Cavalli was born at Crema, then an inland province of the Venetian Republic. He became a singer (boy soprano) at St Mark's Basilica in Venice in 1616, where he had the opportunity to work under the tutorship of Claudio Monteverdi. He became second organist in 1639, first organist in 1665, and in 1668 '' maestro di cappella''. He took the name "Cavalli" from his patron, Venetian nobleman Federico Cavalli. Though he wrote prolifically for the church, he is chiefly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ballet Royal De La Nuit
The ''Ballet Royal de la Nuit'' (Royal Ballet of the Night), ''Ballet Royal de la Nuict'' in its original spelling and often referred to simply as the ''Ballet de la Nuit'', is a ''ballet de cour'' with a libretto by Isaac de Benserade and music by Jean de Cambefort, Jean-Baptiste Boësset, Michel Lambert and possibly others, which premiered on February 23, 1653, at the Salle du Petit-Bourbon in Paris.Bjurström 1962, pp. 157–159. It took 13 hours to perform and included the debut of the fifteen-year-old Louis XIV as Apollo, the Sun King (Le Roi Soleil).Burden & Thorp 2009, p. 3. Plot and music outline The ''Ballet de la Nuit'' concerned the four Watches (''veilles'') of the night, beginning at 6 o'clock in the evening and ending at 6 o'clock in the morning: the first watch (sunset) lasted from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; the second, from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.; the third, from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m., and the fourth (sunrise), from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. With airs by Jean de Cambefort, it was an ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Louis XIV
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reigning monarchs, longest of any monarch in history. An emblem of the Absolutism (European history), age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's legacy includes French colonial empire, French colonial expansion, the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War involving the Habsburgs, and a controlling influence on the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, style of fine arts and architecture in France, including the transformation of the Palace of Versailles into a center of royal power and politics. Louis XIV's pageantry and opulence helped define the French Baroque architecture, French Baroque style of art and architecture and promoted his image as absolute ruler of France in the early modern period. Louis XIV began his personal rule of France ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Fronde
The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in the Kingdom of France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The government of the young King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the noble regional court assemblies (''parlements''), as well as much of the French population, and managed to subdue them all. The dispute started when the government of France issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The ''parlements'' resisted, questioned the constitutionality of the king's actions, and sought to check his powers. The Fronde was divided into two campaigns, the Parlementary Fronde and the Fronde of the Princes. The timing of the outbreak of the Parlementary Fronde, directly after the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that ended the Thirty Years' War, was significant. The nuclei of the armed bands that terrorized parts of France under aristocratic leaders during that peri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Nicolas Gigault
Nicolas Gigault (ca. 1627 – 20 August 1707) was a French Baroque organist and composer. Born into poverty, he quickly rose to fame and high reputation among fellow musicians. His surviving works include the earliest examples of noëls and a volume of works representative of the 1650–1675 style of the French organ school. Life Little is known about Gigault's life. François-Joseph Fétis, a 19th-century musicologist, claimed Gigault was born in Clayes-en-Brie, a village near Paris. However, no locality survives by that name. It is supposed that Gigault's birthplace was just outside Paris. A similar situation occurred concerning Gigault's date of birth: André Pirro deduced in the early 20th century that Gigault must have been born in 1624/5, however, a later study by Pierre Hardouin revealed that the composer could not have been born before 1627. Gigault's father, Estienne Gigault, was a bailiff at the law-courts of Paris. Gigault was born into poverty and his financial situat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
François Roberday
François Roberday (21 March 1624 – 13 October 1680) was a French Baroque organist and composer. One of the last exponents of the French polyphonic music tradition established by Jean Titelouze and Louis Couperin, Roberday is best remembered today for his ''Fugues et caprices'', a collection of four-part contrapuntal organ pieces. Life He was born in Paris in 1624, most probably in March. His family was one of goldsmiths and musicians: his father, a renowned goldsmith, owned a pipe organ and François himself was the brother-in-law of Jean-Henri d'Anglebert, one of the most famous French composers and harpsichordist to the King of France. After his father's death, Roberday was appointed King's goldsmith, and in 1659 he bought the job of the official manservant to the Queen. Unfortunately, Roberday's business gradually declined and by the time of his death he was quite poor. He died in 1680 in Auffargis, a village south of Paris, during an epidemic. Roberday was organist of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Nicolas Métru
Nicolas Métru (c. 1610 in Bar-sur-Aube – 1668 in Paris) was a French organist, viol player, and composer of pieces for viol and airs. From 1642 he was organist at St. Nicolas-des-Champs, then some time later master of music for the Jesuits. He taught Couperin and Lully and was an outstanding viol player. His first publication - which survives - was a collection of laudatory airs to verse by Guillaume de Baïf, a minor poet but son of Jean-Antoine de Baïf, for the victorious return of Louis XIII to Paris in 1628 after the end of the 14-month siege of Protestant La Rochelle. His third collection of airs also contains laudatory texts, for the marriage of Louis XIV. His duets for two viols (Paris, 1642) are the first printed example, and therefore probably antedate the duets of Sainte-Colombe. His fantasias for viols, as those of Henry and Moulinié, derive from the ''air de cour'' and the dance rather than older styles. His 1642 publication reflects the change in development of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Charles, Duke Of Guise
Charles de Lorraine, 4th Duke of Guise and 3rd Prince of Joinville (20 August 1571 – 30 September 1640), was the son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves, and succeeded his father as Duke of Guise in 1588. Initially part of the Catholic league, he pledged his support for Henry IV of France and was made Admiral of the Levant by Louis XIII of France. After siding with the Queen Mother, Marie de' Medici, against Cardinal Richelieu, he fled to Italy with his family where he died in 1640. Biography He was born in Joinville, the son of Henri I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves. Originally styled the ''Chevalier de Guise'', he succeeded as Duke of Chevreuse upon the death of his great-uncle Charles of Guise, Cardinal of Lorraine, a title he later resigned to his brother Claude. After his father's assassination in 1588, Charles succeeded him as Duke of Guise, but was kept in prison in Tours for three years, escaping in 1591. While the Catholic League had great h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
