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Tag Archives: cardinal mazarin

The Godfather of l’Opéra français Part 2 Posted by on Feb 4, 2011

Molière and Jean de la Fontaine: Two famous victims of the intrigues devised by le Parrain (the Godfather) of French Opera. As such, they join a long list of hommes de lettreswho were -it’s tempting to say- “lulled by Lully” * * * If le cardinal Mazarin were to be regarded as the “Overall Godfather“, the capo…

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Jean-Baptiste Lully and l’Opéra français Part 1 Posted by on Feb 3, 2011

It seems that whenever people around the world think of the term opera, it is l’opéra italien that comes up first in their minds. But, all “chauvinistic” considerations aside (no doubt more suitable for the purpose of rehashing the “intricacies” of, say, some highly “theatrical” match finalde la Coupe du Monde de la FIFA), it is…

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