Le Ballet de la Merlaison

recorded at the CND 31 March 2011

Lecture demonstration

A choreographic and musical composition of the “Ballet de la Merlaison”, a ballet written and danced by Louis XIII in Chantilly and in Royaumont in 1635.

During the reign of Louis XIII, according to François de Lauze (1623), dance attained “the highest level of perfection”. Ballet was illustrated in every possible and imaginable form; the never-seen-before and fantasy reigned supreme. “Le Ballet de la Merlaison”, which tells the tale of a blackbird hunt, is exemplary of this period. Louis XIII, apparently, created the music, the argument, the poetry and the costumes for it.

Although the music from the ballet had been preserved in the Philidor Manuscript, it had to be restored. Patrick Blanc detailed it so that it would be in harmony with the dance, orchestrated it and adorned it in accordance with the “characters” that appeared to him in the score. The choreography itself has totally disappeared. With her company L’Éclat des Muses, Christine Bayle has created an innovational version, based on her research carried out on three dance treatises from the period. She has invented never-seen-before and fantasy choreographic compositions, based on a style that unveils itself from a repertoire that is unknown today, a blend of Renaissance and Baroque styles, already referred to as the “Belle Danse”. The artists from L’Éclat des Muses approach this ballet from a perspective that is both serious and burlesque, with distance yet totally investing themselves, with their contemporary sensitivity.

In this lecture demonstration, the audience was invited to discover extracts from the ballet prior to its stage-setting and prior to the creation previews performed in Royaumont Abbey in September 2011. At least seven of the nineteen “entrées” of the ballet are presented. Three highly-renowned historians also intervene. Nathalie Lecomte conjures up the dancing masters (30 March), Eugénia Roucher, the treatises (31 March) and Anne Surgers, the theatrical space and the body during the period (1st April).

Updating: October 2011