A ballet performed in 1681 was at
any rate strongly cast, since there appeared among the dancers Madame
la Dauphine, the Princesse de Conti, and Mdlle. de Nantes, supported
by the Dauphin, the Prince de Conti, and the Duc de Vermandois; but
these distinguished personages probably sang more than they danced.
Louis XIV. frequently figured in ballets, one of his favourite
characters being the Sun in "Flora," said to be the eighteenth ballet
in which he had played a part. Lulli, the composer, director of the
Opera, paid great attention to the ballet, occasionally appearing as a
dancer; as a singer and comic actor he had already acquired fame. To
Lulli has been attributed the introduction of rapid dancing, in
opposition to the solemn and deliberate steps favoured by the court
during the early part of the reign of Louis XIV. It may be added, that
the king held out a measure of encouragement to such of his nobility
and courtiers as were disposed to follow his example and exhibit upon
the scene. "It is our pleasure," he says in the patent granted to the
Abbe Perrin, the first director of the French Opera, 1669, "that all
gentlemen and ladies may sing in the said pieces and representations
of our Royal Academy, without being considered on that account to
derogate from their letters of nobility or from their privileges,
rights, and immunities.
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