Jean Baptiste Lully. Jean-Baptiste Lully cause of death, what the composer actually died from. How the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully died

Jean-Baptiste Lully (November 28, 1632, Florence - March 22, 1687, Paris) - French composer, violinist, dancer, conductor and teacher of Italian origin; creator of the French national opera.

Born into the family of a Florentine miller, Lorenzo di Maldo Lulli (Italian: Lulli) and his wife Caterina del Cero. He learned to play the guitar and violin early, performed comic interludes, and danced excellently. He received his first music lessons from a Franciscan monk. Lully arrived in France in March 1646 in the retinue of the Duke of Guise, as a servant of his niece, Mlle de Montpensier, who practiced Italian with him. He quickly won the trust of his owners and was assigned to Mlle de Montpensier as a page. In 1653, the Fronde was defeated in the fight against Louis XIV, in which Mlle de Montpensier took an active part. She is awaiting exile to the castle of Saint-Fargeau. Lully, in order to stay in Paris, asks to be relieved of his post, and three months later he dances at court in Isaac de Benserade’s “Ballet of the Night”. Having made a favorable impression on the king, he soon replaced the Italian Lazzarini as composer of instrumental music. Lully began his service at court by composing music for ballets (ballets de cour) and dancing in them with the king and courtiers. Initially responsible only for the instrumental part, he quickly took over the work on vocals (vocal numbers were as much a part of ballet as dance until the mid-18th century). Among Lully's works of the 1650-60s are the ballets of Time, Flora, Night, Seasons, Alcidiana, etc. All of them follow a tradition that was extremely popular at the French court in the first half of the 17th century and dates back to the Queen's Comic Ballet of 1581 The ballets, in which both members of the royal family and ordinary dancers performed (and even musicians - playing violins, castanets, etc.) were a sequence of songs, vocal dialogues and the entre proper, united by a common dramaturgy or an expanded allegory (Night , Arts, Pleasure). At times - especially under Louis XIII - their themes could be very extravagant (“Ballet of the dating office”, “Ballet of the Impossibilities”), but at the new court and in a new era, which gravitated towards clearer and more classical images, Lully, as a musician, showed himself , not so much depicting something unusual, but rather a whole series of formal innovations. So in 1658, in “Alcidian and Polexandra” the so-called “French overture” (grave-allegro-grave - as opposed to the Italian “sinphony”: allegro-grave-allegro), which became the calling card of Lully and subsequently of the entire national school; in 1663, in the “Ballet of Flora” - also for the first time in history - the composer introduced trumpets into the orchestra, which had previously performed only the semi-official function of fanfares.

In 1655, Lully led the ensemble of the King's Small Violins (French: Les Petits Violons). His influence at court is gradually growing. In 1661, he became a French citizen (referring to his father as a “Florentine nobleman”) and received the position of “composer of chamber music.” In 1662, when Lully marries Madeleine, daughter of the composer Michel Lambert, the wedding contract is sealed by Louis XIV and Queen Mother Anne of Austria.

In 1658, Moliere made his debut in Paris. In 1663, Louis XIV awarded him a pension of 1000 livres as an “excellent comic poet” and commissioned a play in which he himself would dance. Moliere composes the comedy-ballet “A Reluctant Marriage.” Choreographer Beauchamp and Lully work under his leadership. This production marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration between Lully and Moliere. Together they composed “A Reluctant Marriage” (1664), “The Princess of Elis” (1664), “Love the Healer” (1665), “Georges Dandin” (1668), “Monsieur de Poursonnac” (1669), “Brilliant Lovers” ( 1670) and Psyche (1671, in collaboration with Corneille). On October 14, 1670, their most famous joint work, “The Tradesman among the Nobility,” was presented for the first time at the Chateau de Chambord (on November 28, the performance was shown at the Palais Royal theater with Moliere in the role of Jourdain and Lully in the role of the Mufti). The volume of material belonging to Lully’s own comedy is comparable in size to Molière’s and consists of an overture, dances, several interludes (including a Turkish ceremony) and the large “Ballet of Nations” that concludes the play.

"Cadmus and Hermione" - Lully's first opera - was written to a libretto by Philip Kino on a plot chosen by the king from several options. The premiere took place on April 27, 1673 at the Palais Royal Theater (after the death of Moliere, the king transferred it to Lully). One of the main features of the new opera was the special expressiveness of the melodic composition. According to contemporaries, Lully often went to listen to the performances of great tragic actors. Moreover, he immediately reproduced the shades of this game - pauses, raising and lowering the tone, etc. - in italics, like shorthand, in his notebook. He himself selected musicians and singers, trained them himself, leading rehearsals and conducting with a violin in his hands. In total, he composed and staged thirteen tragedies set to music: “Cadmus and Hermione” (1673), “Alceste” (1674), “Theseus” (1675), “Atis” (1676), “Isis” (1677), “Psyche” (1678, opera version of the tragedy-ballet 1671), Bellerophon (1679), Proserpina (1680), Perseus (1682), Phaeton (1683), Amadis (1684), Roland "(1685) and "Armida" (1686). The opera “Achilles and Polyxena” (1687), based on the verses of Jean Galbert de Campistron, was completed after Lully’s death by his student, Pascal Collas. To this series we can add the “heroic pastoral” “Acis and Galatea,” staged in 1686 and renewed several times.

On February 15, 1686, Lully's last and, as is generally accepted, best opera, Armide, was performed for the first time. His collaborator, as in most other cases, was Kino, who took the plot from “Jerusalem Liberated” by T. Tasso. Unlike previous “tragedies on music”, the premiere of “Armide” took place in Paris, and not at court. After his marriage to Madame de Maintenon, who eschewed theater and opera, as well as social entertainment in general, the king moved away from the composer.

On January 8, 1687, while conducting the Te Deum on the occasion of the king's recovery, Lully injured his leg with the tip of a cane, which was being used to beat time at that time. The wound developed into an abscess and turned into gangrene. On March 22, 1687, the composer died.

In his operas, which bore the title “tragédie mise en musique” (lit. “tragedy set to music”, “tragedy on music”; in Russian musicology the less precise but more euphonious term “lyrical tragedy” is often used), Lully sought to strengthen music creates dramatic effects and gives fidelity to the recitation, dramatic meaning to the chorus. Thanks to the brilliance of the production, the effectiveness of the ballet, the merits of the libretto and the music itself, L.'s operas enjoyed great fame in France and Europe and lasted on the stage for about 100 years, influencing the further development of the genre. Singers in operas under L. for the first time began to perform without masks, women began to dance in ballet on a public stage; trumpets and oboes were introduced into the orchestra for the first time in history, and the overture, unlike the Italian one (allegro, adagio, allegro), took the form grave, allegro, grave. In addition to lyrical tragedies, Lully penned a large number of ballets (ballets de cour), symphonies, trios, violin arias, divertiments, overtures and motets.

Since the 1970s and 80s, all of Lully's tragedies, with the exception of Bellerophon, have been staged again and also released in CD or DVD format. Much of his other music can also be found on recordings.

Biography

Born into the family of a Florentine miller Lorenzo di Maldo Lulli (Italian: Lulli) and his wife Caterina del Cero. He learned to play the guitar and violin early, performed comic interludes, and danced excellently. He received his first music lessons from a Franciscan monk. Lully arrived in France in March 1646 in the retinue of the Duke of Guise as a servant of the royal niece, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, who practiced Italian with him. He quickly won the trust of his owners and was assigned to de Montpensier as a page.

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Since the 1970s and 80s, all of Lully's tragedies have been staged again and also released in CD or DVD format. Much of his other music can also be found on recordings.