LULLY, Jean Baptiste 1632-1687

Le Triomphe de l'Amour, Ballet Royal, Mis en Musique par Monsieur de Lully, Sur-Intendant de la Musique du Roy. [LWV 59]. [Full score]

Paris: Christophe Ballard, seul Imprimeur du Roy pour Musique, ruë Saint Iean de Beauvais, au Mont de Parnasse. Et se vend à l'Entrée de la Porte de l'Academie Royale de Musique, au Palais Royal, ruë Saint Honoré ... Avec Privilege de Sa Maieste, 1681.

Folio. Full modern dark ivory vellum with raised bands on spine in decoratively blindstamped compartments. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (dedication), 117, 18 (the Entrée des Cariens," unpaginated), 118-192, 12 (the Entrée de Pan, d'Arcas et de Silvanis," unpaginated), 193-220 pp. With rastrum-ruled blank staves added to many pages. Music and text typeset throughout, music in diamond-head notation.

With Lully's control paraph to foot of final page.

Contemporary manuscript annotations to upper outer corner of front free endpaper noting names of 18th century French writers and to title noting names of librettists Quinault and Benserade. Text in contemporary hand under uppermost treble line (designated "Venus" by the scribe) of the instrumental selection "Deuxieme Menüet pour les Mesmes," pp. 22-23, the first line being "Si quelquefois l'amour cause des peines." With manuscript directions to foot of p. 21 regarding the part of Venus.

Elaborate woodcut device to title incorporating horticultural and architectural motifs with central image within oval border depicting allegorical personifications of Fortune and Virtue with "Virtuti Fortuna Cedit" (Fortune Yields to Virtue) at Virtue's head with cherubs playing lute and viol and Orpheus with lyre; a satyr playing a panpipe flanks the central image, with two additional cherubs displaying a short musical phrase above.

Title label to spine lacking. Slightly worn and browned, more heavily to lower inner margins; small chips to edges of first leaves; occasional tears to edges, some repaired; occasional foxing and small stains.

A very good copy overall.

First Edition. Rare. Schneider p. 351. Sonneck Dramatic Music p. 100. Lesure p. 408. BUC p. 635. Hirsch II, 146. RBH (3 copies only offered at auction since 1960). RISM L3054 and LL3054.

Le Triomphe de l'Amour, with a libretto by Quinault and Isaac de Benserade, was first performed in Saint-Germain-en-Laye at the Salle de Comédie of the Château on 21 January 1681 to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin to Marie-Anne-Christine-Victoire of Bavaria.

"Three of Louis XIV's other children danced in this ballet, which had its première at Saint Germain-en-Laye in 1681: they were the Comte de Vermandois, the Princesse de Conti and the young Mademoiselle de Nantes." Lois Rosow in Grove Music Online

"The production featured royal and aristocratic amateur dancers and professional performers. In May 1681 the ballet was transferred to the public stage at the Paris Opéra with a fully professional cast, including - for the first time at that theatre - women dancers. According to contemporary reports, spectacular scenic effects were devised for the Opéra production by the Italian theatrical engineer Ercole Rivani. The livret (libretto) for the court production is well documented, but that for the Opéra production was thought lost. However, a livret in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France may be identified as that for the Opéra production. It reveals that extensive scenographic changes - and some musical ones - were made for the Opéra. Certain changes affected the presentation of the dances. Engravings of a few costume designs for the ballet have long been known. Mickaël Bouffard and Jérôme de La Gorce have recently identified further designs in the Louvre. With these and the scene descriptions in the Opéra livret we can now reassess the impact of this spectacular multimedia work." Abstract, "Le Triomphe de l'Amour' 1681: A Multimedia Spectacular on the Court and Public Stage" presented by Sandra Tuppen at Dance, Costume & Scenography, 2023, Oxford University

With text by French poet, librettist, and playwright Isaac de Benserade (1613-1691). "[Benserade's] art of telling the truth about society people with elegance and dexterity was not only appreciated by the salons and developed in all the current poetic genres – epigrams, madrigals, rondeaux, enigmas, portraits and epitaphs – but was peculiarly suited to the court ballet. Benserade's popularity coincided with Louis XIV's career as a dancer of some talent, and between 1651 and 1669, when the king retired from the stage, Benserade wrote verses for 23 royal ballets." Margaret M. McGowan in Grove Music Online

Le Triomphe de l'Amour was the first ballet with female dancers at the Paris Opéra, featuring one of the most iconic pieces of music and dance of the 17th century, the "Entrée d'Apollon."

One of the rarest of Lully's first editions.

Item #39606

Price: $5,500.00  other currencies