Book contents
- Molière in Context
- Molière in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Charts and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Translations
- Abbreviations
- Biographical Preface
- Part I Socio-Political Context
- Part II Intellectual and Artistic Context
- Part III Theatrical Context (Paris)
- Part IV Theatrical Context (Court)
- Chapter 18 Colbert, Cultural Policy and the Propaganda of Spectacle
- Chapter 19 The Decors of Comedy-Ballet: From the ‘Songe de Vaux’ to the ‘Rêve de Versailles’
- Chapter 20 Court Performances and Their Audiences
- Chapter 21 Music
- Chapter 22 The Livrets of Molière’s Plays
- Part V Reception and Dissemination
- Part VI Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 19 - The Decors of Comedy-Ballet: From the ‘Songe de Vaux’ to the ‘Rêve de Versailles’
from Part IV - Theatrical Context (Court)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2022
- Molière in Context
- Molière in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Charts and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Translations
- Abbreviations
- Biographical Preface
- Part I Socio-Political Context
- Part II Intellectual and Artistic Context
- Part III Theatrical Context (Paris)
- Part IV Theatrical Context (Court)
- Chapter 18 Colbert, Cultural Policy and the Propaganda of Spectacle
- Chapter 19 The Decors of Comedy-Ballet: From the ‘Songe de Vaux’ to the ‘Rêve de Versailles’
- Chapter 20 Court Performances and Their Audiences
- Chapter 21 Music
- Chapter 22 The Livrets of Molière’s Plays
- Part V Reception and Dissemination
- Part VI Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Molière’s comedy ballets were devised to glorify Louis XIV and were often performed in the grounds of royal palaces, where the decors created spectacle by means of effects involving doubling and continuity with the surrounding area. This is true of La Princesse d’Élide and George Dandin, both performed in the Petit Parc at Versailles; Les Amants magnifiques, given at Saint-Germain-en-Laye; and Psyché, which was staged in the Salle des Machines in the Tuileries. This courtier-like celebration of the prince’s domain and his fairy-tale magic via Vigarani’s stagings was haunted by the memory of the sumptuous festivity Fouquet had offered the King in his gardens at Vaux shortly before his fall from favour, which had itself been inspired by Apolidon’s enchanted castle in Renaissance texts. It suggested that the domain of the powerful could only be imagined and created by means of the performance of fantasies that stimulated adhesion.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Molière in Context , pp. 183 - 191Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022