Bell Ringer – 11/1
m.socrative.com – Room 38178 OR Bell Ringer Card
QUESTIONS:
 1. “Speak singing” is called _________________.
 2. Who is the father of opera?
THE INTERNET IS DOWN AT THE MOMENT – everyone needs to do
it on a Bell Ringer card and put it in the box
Louis XIV
We talked about him BRIEFLY yesterday with the development of the opera –
he’s an important guy!
Louis XIV
 1638-1715
 “Louis the Great” & “The Sun King”
 Ruled as King of France from 1643 until
his death
 Reigned for 72 years and 110 days – the
longest of a monarch of a major country
in European History
 Died of gangrene 4 days before his 77th
birthday
 Succeeded by this 5-year-old great
grandson XV
Louis XIV
 Dancer
 Performed 80 roles in 40 major ballets
 Professional ballet dancer
 Often portrayed roles that were royal or godlike
 Combined business with art in a mutually beneficial way
Dance
Dance
 By the late 16th century, baroque art was consolidated in the court of Louis
XIV
 He was a great patron of painting, sculpture, theater, and architecture and
brought ballet into full participation
 Louis the XIV was an avid dancer himself – he studied for 20 years with the
dancing master Pierre Beauchamps
Dance – Pierre Beauchamps
 Pierre Beauchamps invented the 5 basic ballet positions
Second
First
Fourth
Third
Fifth
Dance
 Louis XIV is nicknamed “The Sun King”
 At the age of 14th, he danced as Apollo the Sun-God in Le Ballet de la Nuit
 Louis XIV employed a team of professional artists to produce ballet and
opera at court – Moliere (playwright) was a part of these collaborative
efforts
Dance
 The plots for French ballet came from classical mythology
 The style of dancing was fairly simple and controlled
 Gestures were symmetrical
 Costumes included elaborate wigs
 Any movement that threatened to knock one’s wig off would have been
impractical and awkward.
Dance
 Ballet became formally institutionalized when LouisXIV founded the
Academie Royale de Danse in 1661
 Royal Academy of Dance
 He hired 13 dancing masters to teach there
 10 years later, the Royal Academy of Dance merged with the Royal
Academy of Music (newly established)
 Both schools used Louis XIV’s personal theater – a “picture frame stage”
 Choreography was designed for an audience on one side
Dance
 The establishment of the Royal Academy of Dance led to prescribed rules
for positions and movement
 Women took the stage as professional ballerinas for the first time
 As the baroque era came to a close in the early 1700s, the foundations of
ballet were in place
Louis XIV as The Sun King
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYHPNgSUIoE
Drama
Drama
 Between 1550 and 1720, France developed a theatrical tradition called
“French neoclassicism”
 In 1548, the Protestants and Catholics outlawed religious drama
 Secular drama became popular
Drama – French Neoclassicism
 Plays had to conform to 2 specific rules
 The action of the play had to occur in a single location
 No change in setting
 The action could not encompass more than 24 hours
 The play must take place over the course of one day (the play itself is probably only 1- 2
hours long.)
Drama – French Neoclassicism
 Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) created French masterpieces by breaking the
rules
 In 1635, he wrote the masterpiece Le Cid
 Tragic comedy about love and war
 France condemned the play though – other countries loved it!
Drama – French Neoclassicism
 Moliere (1622-1673) wrote French comedies
 Performed in “tennis-court theaters”
 Size and shape of indoor tennis courts made them perfect for theater
 A performance in front of Louis XIV launched his career as a playwright
 Wrote Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, and the Bourgeois Gentleman (ber-sh-wa)
 Fast paced action, crisp language, and gentle but effective mockery of humans
 Challenged background designers
Drama – Moliere
 The Bourgeois Gentleman
 5 Act Comedy Ballet
 Includes dialogue, music and dance, but no singing
 Choreography done by Pierre Beauchamp
 Pokes fun at the pretentious middle-class and the vain aristocracy
 A middle class man wants to climb the ladder and become an aristocrat – takes
up fencing, dancing, music, and philosophy
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE3n_ZfCqBk&list=PLB672ED271DF0EB5
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