Lulli before Lully
Nothing foretells the meteoric rise of the Florentine Giovanni Battista Lulli at the time of his arrival in Paris in 1646. The young violonist is only fourteen. His presence stresses the position of the Italians at the court, in accordance with the taste of Cardinal Mazarin, who introduces Italian art to France. Brought from Florence by the Cavalier De Guise, little Lulli is “chamber boy” to the Grande Mademoiselle, the Duchess of Montpensier, who enjoys conversing in Italian. Very soon after, Lulli becomes tumbler to the princess. At the time of the Fronde, on Condé’s side since 1651, she turns the guns of the Bastille against the royalist army. The King punishes the insolence of the great aristocrats and the duchess is exiled to Saint-Fargeau. Lulli abandons the sinking ship and on his return to Paris in February 1653 has already joined Mazarin’s cortège. Affirmation of Italian refinement is the symbol of the establishment of monarchist order, of the Queen, Anne of Austria, of the Cardinal and of the young Louis XIV. Lulli is launched. His talent for dancing charms another passionate dancer, the youthful monarch. Both appear side by side in the Ballet Royal de la Nuict on the 23rd February 1653, in which Louis is the triumphant sun, victor over the Frondists and of the civil war. The royal favour becomes more specific. Lulli succedes Lazzarini as “composer for instrumental music.” He joins the Vingt-quatre violons du Roi (the Twenty-four royal violinists) but obtains from the monarch the privilege of organising his own orchestra, Les Petits Violons or La Petite Bande. Between 1654 and 1666 Lulli conducts his orchestra whose reputation spreads throughout Europe. 1654 is typical of his activity—the Ballet des Proverbes in February, Les Noces de Pelleas et de Thetis in April, the Ballet du Temps in November. Between 1653 and 1655, the entertainer sets the poems of Benserade to music. Lulli is Louis XIV’s companion in adventure and the person who organises his pleasures. Jeunesse de prince, source de belle fortune (“Prince’s youth, source of good fortune”), writes La Bruyère. Thereafter, the musician’s career will be linked to the Kings increasing power.
Lulli becomes Lully
The musician’s status is enhanced. Mazarin’s work has borne fruit. The cardinal loves music. In Rome, before he arrived in Paris, he was associated with the blossoming of Roman opera by organizing musical events for his protector, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. Mazarin wishes to import Italian luxury to Paris and his taste ensures that Italian culture takes root in Paris. Lulli is in the right place at the right time. In 1645 Sacrati’s La Finta Pazza is produced in Paris on the Cardinal’s instructions. The magic of the Italian music and the sets of the magician Torelli captivate the public. Luigi Rossi’s Orfeo repeats the experience the following year as Lulli arrives in Paris. The luxury of the productions contributes to Mazarin’s unpopularity. The mazarinades, pamphlets against the politician, speak of the excessive expenditure of the “great machine maker.” Ultimately Lulli will bring Mazarin’s plans to fruition, but only after the latter’s death. Very soon, Lulli is struggling for his position, but his ballets, interpolated into the operas of the Venetian Francesco Cavalli, ensure his success. The first is Serse, performed for the Court at the Louvre at Mazarin’s request on the 22nd of November 1660, the occasion of the wedding of Louis XIV. Lully’s dances stand out and reveal him as a French composer. Verve and a natural feeeling for the dramatic confirm Lully’s talent and the King appoints him “Superintendent and composer of the Chamber” in May 1661. The composer rises as the dancer fades. Lully receives his naturalisation papers in December 1661. On the 24th February 1662, at Saint-Eustache, he marries Madeleine Lambert. Her father is Michel Lambert, music master of the Chamber and a famous composer of courtly tunes. Thus at the beginning of the 1660s, when (after Mazarin’s death in 1661) young Louis XIV assumes power, the musician’s ambition is made evident: Lulli dies in order that Lully may rise. Lully the devious Frenchman now favours the return of the Italian Cavalli. The latter’s opera Ercole Amante, performed on the 7th February 1662 in front of the court, is a failure. The six hours of Italian music, interspersed with Lully’s ballets, require machines which are too noisy. But the ballets have worked their spell. Cavalli leaves Paris. Lully triumphs. His success provokes the jealousy of men of letters and playwrights. La Fontaine, Boileau, Bossuet are irritated by this young and ambitious opportunist who is protected by the King’s friendship. The monarch’s affection for him increases. Lully’s tragedies will soon gain for him his Letters Patent of Nobility and the title of Counsellor-Secretary to the King in 1680. The status granted by the Sovereign inaugurates a previously unknown post and is testimony to the recognition of a musician in his own time.
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