‘Triumph, victorious Love’: Le Triomphe de l’Amour (1681) and English dramatic opera

Abstract

Abstract The French entertainment Le Triomphe de l’Amour was premiered at Louis XIV’s court in January 1681. A revised version was staged at the Paris Opéra in May 1681 with additional music and new scenic effects. Thomas Betterton modelled the final masque from his dramatic opera The Prophetess (1690) on the Paris version of the work, borrowing its theme and spectacular multi-stage machine effects, and some lyrics. Roger Savage has shown that the sleep scene from The Fairy Queen (1692) has ideas and text in common with Le Triomphe de l’Amour. A scenic effect in The Fairy Queen is also derived from the work. Given the literary and scenic borrowings from Le Triomphe de l’Amour in both dramatic operas, and Betterton’s role in adapting The Prophetess, he was almost certainly responsible for the Fairy Queen adaptation too. Some of Purcell’s music for The Fairy Queen emulates Lully’s music for the French work. Purcell borrows instrumental effects, stylistic features, and melodic and harmonic material. He may also have taken inspiration from the work in his treatment of the instruments in The Prophetess, though the influence of Grabu is more strongly apparent in this work. These borrowings provide further evidence that aemulatio remained core to both musical and literary composition—and was also applicable to theatrical staging—in late 17th-century London. Le Triomphe de l’Amour is an important work in the history of French musical theatre. Part of its legacy, in addition, is its substantial influence on English dramatic opera.