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1 Lully and the Death of Cambert
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3 1 Lully and the Death of Cambert Musicians have not been immune to the venom of professional rivalry. Tradition appears to attribute the most intense rivalries to operatic composers . In the case of one of the great competitive pairings, Gluck and Piccinni, neither man seems to have had any basis to reproach the other for acts of unfairness. The guilty parties were the factions of the Paris opera world that attempted unsuccessfully to pit the two men against each other in an operatic mano a mano by assigning them the same libretto based on Quinault’s Roland. The legends of other rivalries are darker. in the accounts of the enmity of salieri for mozart and of the victory of JeanBaptiste Lully over Robert Cambert, we read not only testimonies to professional antagonism but also hints or outright charges of assassination. The mozart-salieri traditions have often been summarized and will be the subject of detailed examination in the next chapter. However, the story of how Lully came to be blamed for the death of Cambert in London in 1677 is relatively little known to the English-reading public. In fact, little effort has been made by prior researchers (principally French) to determine whether the traditional view that Cambert died violently can be documented from English records. My two purposes here will be to review the anti-Lully traditions that have grown up around Cambert’s death and to demonstrate, on the basis of a survey of English records, the difficulty of producing evidence that Cambert was murdered by anyone at all. it is not an accident that the most extreme traditions of musical rivalry from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries derive from the world of opera. Many factors fed the potentialities for conflict that are never 4 · Musical Mysteries wholly lacking when sensitive artists are struggling to find acceptance for their work. Due to the cultural centralism of monarchic society and the great expense of opera productions, the commissioning and subsidizing of operas were primarily under control of the court. The success of opera composers was accordingly determined not only by talent but also by the political strength of their supporters. Courtiers electioneered for the opera composers under their patronage, and their campaigns were marred by “dirty tricks.” The passions stirred by opera politics were further inflamed by nationalism . In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Italian opera, and Italian operatic composers and troupes, were exported to the major European capitals, where they met with native resistance. To the extent that this led to adaptation of Italian style or development of newer national styles, such resistance was musically fruitful, but it also took its toll in personal animosities directed against the cultural invaders. The libels against salieri were based in large measure on his italian origin. Lully was not able, either by his writ of naturalization from Louis XIV or the changed spelling of his name, to convince the people of Paris that he had, “in spite of all temptations to belong to other nations,” become a true Frenchman. The story of the competition of Cambert and Lully for mastery of the French opera world might read like the race of the hare and the tortoise if we were to attribute more cunning to the tortoise than is granted by proverb. Cambert was off the mark thirteen years sooner, but he rested for a decade; when success was in sight, his more resourceful adversary overtook him. Cambert’s musical career in Paris was anchored by significant official posts. He served as organist of the Church of St. Honoré and, from 1662 or 1663, as Anne of Austria’s master of music. early in his career Cambert conceived the idea of creating a comédie en musique in the French language . Under Cambert’s concept, musical continuity would be provided by the use of recitative on the italian model, and the singers would move freely about the stage instead of striking wooden postures. Cambert’s first effort in the new operatic genre, written to a libretto by the clumsy and conceited poet Pierre Perrin, was the so-called Pastorale of Issy, which was performed at a private country home at Issy near Paris in 1659. Unfortunately , Cambert was never inclined or able to push the borders of opera beyond pastoral scenes. A second opera, Ariane et Bacchus, was [3.90.187.11] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:22 GMT) Lully and the Death of Cambert · 5 composed in 1659 under...