Cambridge University Collegium Musicum

Movements from Lully Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (LWV.43) 

Luke Fitzgerald, director & harpsichord 

Cambridge University Collegium Musicum  

Written in 1670, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme marks the high point of the foremost collaborative pairing in French court theatre in the 17th Century, between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Molière), known as the ‘deux Baptiste’. Since they began writing comèdies-ballets, these productions had included more and more elaborate and dramatic music, with Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme one of the final theatre pieces they produced before they parted company due to a feud over artistic royalties. Cambridge University Collegium Musicum explore the drama woven deep into the music Lully wrote for this play, both the instrumental suites or ‘Intermèdes’ that punctuated the drama and portions of sung dialogue that point the way to Lully’s later operas written from the 1670s onwards. 

TICKETS: Admission free; retiring collection