BENSERADE Isaac de Vers du ballet royal dansé par leurs majestez entre les actes de la grande tragédie d’Hercule amoureux. Avec la traduction du Prologue, & des Argumens de chaque acte.–  [Suivi de] : [BUTI (Francesco)]. Ercole amante… Hercule amoureux. Tragédie, représentée pour les Nopces de leurs Majestez tres-Chrestiennes.

Malkin, Dancing by the Book, 9.1 (for the French translation only); La Vallière, Ballet, p. 76.

First edition, rare.

Isaac de Benserade’s libretto in verse form is followed in continuous pagination by Francesco Buti’s lyric tragedy in Italian and its French translation by Camillo. These eighteen ballet entries evoking the origin and greatness of the House of France were performed to music by Lully as interludes at the Paris performances of the opera Ercole amante.

Antoine Desbrosses (died in Brussels in December 1700), a master dancer under Louis XIV, first appeared at Versailles in 1659 in the Ballet de la Raillerie, composed by Benserade. A few years after the creation of the Royal Academy of Dance in 1661, Desbrosses was entrusted with its direction until 1669 and during this period danced in court ballets and comedy-ballets created by Molière, Lully and Beauchamps; he appeared in particular in the Ballet de l’impatience (Benserade and Lully, 1661), in the entreactes of Hercule amoureux (Benserade and Lully, 1662) and in other plays.

The lyric tragedy itself, whose subject is borrowed from the Métamorphoses, had been commissioned by Mazarin from Francesco Cavalli and Francesco Buti for the wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Theresa of Spain.

It was performed on 7 February 1662 by Cardinal Mazarin’s troupe of Italian singers, under the direction of the composer, in the new Salle des Tuileries, a theatre with around 6,000 seats (one of the largest ever built in Paris), suitable for the installation of complex machinery. This venue was built in three years at great expense by Gasparo and Carlo Vigarani on the orders of Louis XIV, inaugurated with Hercule amoureux, but quickly abandoned because of its disastrous acoustics. Numerous complex and noisy machines were built by the Vigarani brothers to perform acrobatics.

The copy described Malkin differs from the present one. The Ercole Amante is here part of the edition and is paginated in sequence to the French translation. The French translation occupies pages 1-52, Ercole Amante is to be found on pages [53] to 213.

“Cavalli’s opera Ercole Amante (or Hercule amoureux) was given at the Tuileries on 7 Fbruary 1662. The production was notable for its scenic effects by the Vigaranis. The represenation of Hell in the fifth act was so successful that the scenes and machines were re-used, ath the king’s request, for the 1671 production of Psiché” (Malkin).

Light spotting and foxing, occasional amrginal waterstain..

Provenance: From the library of Loppin de Gemeaux et de Montmort, with armorial bookplate with the motto ‘ny amy ny ennemy a demy’.