Lully's Ballet royal de la Naissance de Vénus was written in 1665 when Lully and his patron, King Louis XIV of France, were at the height of their powers. With more than ten years as court composer under his belt, Lully had revolutionized the sound of the ballet de cour , replacing stately and perhaps stodgy dances with a variety of lively rhythms borrowed from social dancing. Then came the commission, from the king himself, for the Ballet royal de la Naissance de Vénus, to be danced by his sister-in-law, Henrietta of ...
Read More
Lully's Ballet royal de la Naissance de Vénus was written in 1665 when Lully and his patron, King Louis XIV of France, were at the height of their powers. With more than ten years as court composer under his belt, Lully had revolutionized the sound of the ballet de cour , replacing stately and perhaps stodgy dances with a variety of lively rhythms borrowed from social dancing. Then came the commission, from the king himself, for the Ballet royal de la Naissance de Vénus, to be danced by his sister-in-law, Henrietta of England. This was a splendid work that combined dance, music (including choruses and songs), poetry, and the considerable best of the court's stagecrafters, all in service of a two-section work, the first depicting the creation of the goddess Venus, and the second praising her power across the universe. It is doubtless a bit difficult to imagine the impact this work must have had from the music alone; what one hears is a long sequence of short dances and a lot of the reigning...
Read Less
