Musical Theatre at the Court of Louis XIV

This book reproduces the entire manuscript of the ballet and provides a comprehensive study of the work itself and of the circumstances in which it was created and performed.

Dance played a major role in all French Baroque theatrical entertainments. Le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos, a short ballet performed at the court of Louis XIV, is of major importance, largely because it has survived complete in all its components - choreography, music, and text - and also because it uses a previously unknown dance notation system. This book reproduces the entire manuscript of this ballet and provides a comprehensive study of the work itself and of the circumstances in which it was created and performed. Chapters devoted to the composer, choreographer, and performers provide a framework for understanding the performance context not only of this work, but of other court entertainments of the period. A study and evaluation of the notation system in which the dances are recorded, together with a detailed analysis of the dances, completes the introduction.