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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

Jan Clarke
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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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.

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Molière in Context , pp. 183 - 191
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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