Opéra-ballet (; plural: ''opéras-ballets'') is a genre of French

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

lyric theatre that was most popular during the 18th century, combining elements of

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

and

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, "that grew out of the '' ballets à entrées'' of the early seventeenth century".Pitou 1983, p. 278 "''Opéra-ballet''". 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 Classical mythology, also known as Greco-Roman mythology or Greek and Roman mythology, is the collective body and study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans. Mythology, along with philosophy and political thought, is one of the m ...

and 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 around a single theme. The individual acts could also be performed independently, in which case they were known as ''actes de ballet''.

History

The first work in the genre is generally held to be André Campra's '' L'Europe galante'' ("Europe in Love") of 1697, but ''Les Saisons''Composed by Pascal Collasse and by Louis Lully, possibly by also borrowing from the late (that is, Jean-Baptiste) Lully (Pitou 1983, pp. 308–309 "''Les Saisons''"). of 1695 is so typical of the genre, that it is mentioned as the most distinctive prototype of this sort of composition, although the latter has a mythological plot. Famous later examples are '' Les élémens'' (1721) by Destouches, '' Les Indes galantes'' (1735), and '' Les fêtes d'Hébé'' (1739) by

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of ...

Notes

References

* Anthony, James R. (2001). "Opéra-ballet" in ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...

'', 2nd edition, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan. (hardcover). (eBook). Also a
Oxford Music Online
(subscription required). * Bartlet, M. Elizabeth C. (1992). "Opéra-ballet", vol. 3, pp. 683–684, in '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', 4 volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. New York: Grove. . Also a
Oxford Music Online
(subscription required). * Bellingham, Jane (2002). "opéra-ballet", p. 862, in ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', edited by Alison Latham. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Also a
Oxford Music Online
(subscription required). * Pitou, Spire (1983). ''The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Genesis and Glory, 1671-1715''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. . * Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Opera-Ballet Operas-ballet Opera genres Opera terminology