Jean-Baptiste Lully was one of the most influential composers of his time. He was admired for his immense musical talent and organizational skills, and was feared and hated for his despotic, envious disposition. Thanks to cleverly plotted intrigues, he absolutely ruled the French musical world at that time, and without his knowledge and consent no opera performance could take place. He was the court composer of Louis XIV, and his music was supposed to add splendour to the court performances, staged at the behest of the Sun King.

Lully, together with Molière, created a new stage genre, known as comédie-ballet. It combined music, dance, singing and acting into an inseparable whole, it required the performers to be both imaginative and versatile and to master their craft perfectly. Together, the ‘Great Baptists’ (Molière's real name is Jean Baptiste Poquelin) created eleven comédie-ballets, each of which was a major event when it premiered. During the concert at the National Forum of Music, the Le Poème Harmonique conducted by Vincent Dumestre will present fragments of eight works of this type. The most outstanding of them Le bourgeois gentilhomme first staged in 1670. During the premiere performance, Molière played the role of Monsieur Jourdain, and Lully danced as the grand mufti during the final Turkish ceremony. The whole concert will end with the Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs, the last music number from this play. Due to Lully’s despotic nature, his collaboration with Molière became more and more difficult. At one point, the playwright approached the outstanding and versatile composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier with a proposal to work together. One of the works they created in tandem was Le mariage forcé, staged in 1672. Interestingly, as early as 1664, the comedy ballet was staged with Lully’s music, but due to the conflict between the playwright and the composer, Molière decided to order new music for this play.