Le triomphe de l'Amour 1st edition, 1681

Le Triomphe de l'Amour, a ballet de cour created by composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and librettists Isaac de Benserade and Philippe Quinault, was danced for the first time at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on January 21, 1681. Several setbacks, including the illness of the dauphin and the reluctance of court ladies to attend the ballet, postponed its premiere for nearly three months. Benserade, one of the creators of the ballet de cour, was drawn out of retirement to create verses in celebration of the dauphin's marriage to Marie-Anne-Christine-Victoire of Bavaria. The first public performance at the Palais Royale in Paris took place May 6, 1681. 

The most radical element of the first performance of Le Triomphe de l'Amour was the appearance of professional female dancers in the public performances at the Palais Royale. Traditionally, all danced roles in the public performances of ballets had been taken by men, although court ladies had occasionally danced roles for the court performances. The female performers were very well received, especially the dancer La Fontaine. The same dancers appeared in a November performance of Lully's Proserpine.

Benserade's creation of Le Triomphe de l'Amour followed his usual pattern: he provided an overall scheme and all of the principal verses to the choruses and solos (short ariettas interposed throughout) while another librettist, in this case Quinault, created the linking recitatives. While it praises the king, the ballet also alludes to many sublayers of the court, as the interactions of specific shepherds refer to specific courtesans. The dauphin himself appeared as a Pleasure in the third entry, but his lines are trivial in comparison with those given to other court figures. The décor was designed by veteran machinist Carlo Vigarani.

Each of the twenty entrées that comprise Le Triomphe de l'Amour reveals aspects of love triumphant. The theater represents a magnificently ornate place where a crowd receives l'Amour, who comes in triumph. Venus presides over the crowd and sings of the virtues of the king who has restored peace to his kingdom. Venus entreats everyone - mortals and gods alike - to pay homage to her victorious son. 

The Graces and Driades begin the progression in the First Entrée, followed shortly by the Naiads in the Second Entrée and the Pleasures in the Third Entrée. 

Mars and his warriors comprise the Fourth Entrée - having once opposed peace, they have now come to accept and acknowledge Love's triumph. 

This acceptance is manifest in the Fifth Entrée where "les Amours" (Cupids) enchain Mars in a garland of flowers. 

Neptune, who has long pursued the reluctant goddess Amphitrite, succeeds in winning her heart in the Sixth Entrée as the marine gods and Nereides proclaim his fortune. 

Entrées Seven and Eight  tell the story of Borée, the north wind, who beholds Orithie dancing with a troupe of Athenian girls He falls in love and kidnaps her.

Surrounded by nymphs, Diane sings of her contempt for love in the Ninth Entrée, but is swayed when Endimion enters and softens her heart in the Tenth Entrée. 

Night enters in the Eleventh Entrée and invites all nature into its stillness. Diane asks Night for help and the god summons Dreams to assist her. 

In Entrée Twelve, the people of Carie, missing Night, cry out with the sounds of their instruments. 

Returning from the Indies, Bacchus falls in love with Ariadne in the Thirteenth Entrée.

The Fourteenth Entrée highlights the celebration of their entourages. The action begins to slow as Mercure, acknowledging that the unfavorable gods have been
abolished, sings in adulation to Amour and calls for all to do the same. 

Others follow Mercure's recommendation in the next three entries.  Entrée Fifteen features Apollon, followed by his shepherds in Entrée Sixteen.  Then Pan proceeds to sing to Love in Entrée Seventeen, and his Fauns appear in the Eighteenth Entrée.

In the Nineteenth Entrée, Zephire, the west wind, leads Flora and her nymphs, who scatter flowers in Love's path. The ballet ends with Love, borne by the gods and heroes he conquered, being received at the throne of Jupiter who recognizes Love as the most powerful of all gods. 

All join in the final dance of Entrée Twenty in praise of love triumphant.

Title from title page: LE TRIOMPHE / DE / L'AMOUR / BALLET ROYAL, / MIS EN MUSIQVE
Genre: ballet royal
Siglum from Lully thematic catalog: LWV 59
Composer: Jean-Baptiste Lully, 1632-1687
Librettist: Isaac de Benserade and Philippe Quinault, 1635-1688
Libretto based on: Original libretto
Premiere: St. Germain-en-Laye, court, 21 January 1681
First published: Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1681
Volume in the UNT Lully Collection: First edition, Paris: Christophe Ballard, 1681

For further reading on Le Triomphe de l'Amour, see:

Koegler, Horst. "Triomphe de l'amour, Le."  In The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ballet.  2nd edition.  London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.  421. 

Silin, Charles I.  Benserade and his Ballets de Cour.  Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1940.  ["Extra Volume XV" of the Johns Hopkins Studies in Romance Literatures and Languages.] 

See the Lully bibliography for more suggested reading.

Full score: Typeset. 2° in 4s: ² A-O4 P6 P*4 P**² x1 Q-2A4 2A*4 2A**² 2B4 (±2Biij) 2C-2D4 2E². 9-3/4 X 14-3/4 inches. 248 pp. 

Christophe Ballard published this edition of Le Triomphe de l'Amour (composer Jean-Baptiste lully, librettist Philippe Quinault) in 1681, probably to accompany the first public performances in May of that year (the first court performance took place 21 January). The confusing collation and pagination suggest considerable confusion about the makeup of the work during the period of typesetting and printing. It appears that a complete score with continuous pagination 1-220 (with the inevitable pagination errors endemic to this repertoire) was printed. Subsequent to this printing, several sections were added. The signatures P*, P2*, A* and A2* do not have page numbers. P*i is numbered 117 and P2*iv is numbered 118, and no page numbers appear on any of the leaves of A* and A2*. A single leaf (2Biij) without page numbers is pasted in between pages 200 and 201. The watermark on the added signatures and leaves is different from those in the rest of the text. The Ballard stamp appears on pages 116 and 117. 

Condition: The current binding is a contemporary full calf with gilt floral motifs in the panels of the jointed spine. The binding is scratched and worn and leather panels are missing from the spine. The endpapers are marbled. Pp. 51-54 are missing and have been replaced with photostats. There is some water damage, slight foxing. 

Provenance: This volume was given to the North Texas State University Music Library by faculty member Isaac Lloyd Hibberd, whose bookplate appears on the inside front paste-down endpaper. According to Adkins, it was purchased from Kenneth Mummery of Bournemouth, England. 

RISM A/I, L3054
 
This volume is described in An Annotated Bibliography of Rare Materials Contained in the Music Library of North Texas State University, compiled by Cecil Adkins' Seminar in Musicology during the first summer term (June-July) 1969. Unpublished.
A copy of the same edition of Le Triomphe de l'Amour is described in "Opera 1: Being the catalogue of the collection Opera 1600-1750 in contemporary editions and manuscripts now in the holdings of the Music Library of the University of Western Ontario," ed. Don Neville, Studies in Music from the University of Western Ontario 4:2 (1979), part 2, p. 294.