Good morning to all, I exchanged a mail with Monica without realising that I had sent it to her only and not to her plus the list... My mistake ;-( but not very important anyway. I sometimes get confused in the choices to reply to messages... Anyway, Monica quoted an part of the article in Le Mercure Galant relating Corbetta's death in april 1681, and you can also read the original item directly from the Bibliothèque Nationale digital library "Gallica" at the following address : http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k62252133/f133.image Most of the Mercure Galant collection is available online and for downloading, which, as you know, is a mine of information about what we are all interested in !
The obituary of Corbetta refers to the participation of Corbetta to "les plus pompeux spectacles" at the request of Louis XIV. It is true that he appeared in his Italian colleague's (Lulli's) production le Ballet de la Galanterie du Temps in 1656. Corbetta had been invited to France by Mazarin and appeared in several "entrées" with guitars, including one in which he played along with the young Louis XIV himself. He also accompanied the famous Italian singer Anna Bergerotti and the French Anne de La Barre. The Petits Violons, a creation of Lulli when he took over from his Italian predecessor Lazarini, made their first appearance in this Ballet too. The text of the Ballet is available online in a later copy (1705) by Philidor and the manuscript version is dated 1660, but it prserves the names of those who took part in it, including "Corbetti" (sic) : http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1036755 (the Ballet in qustion begins on page 57 of the ms). Regarding the reason why de Visée was much more in demand than Louis Jourdan is unknown. Maybe Jourdan was not such a good guitar player after all and the king preferred the much more talented de Visée... Conjecture again as ever ;-) Incidentally, this 1656 Ballet also employed the theorbo players de La Barre, Vincent, Ytier (= Ithier), Grénerin, Le Moine and Hurel... What a dream team it must have been ;-) Best, Jean-Marie -------------- >After the remarks made about Satoh's liner notes, I hate to cite any others, >but in Philippe Beaussant's rather poignant notes to Hopkison Smith's Pieces >de Theorbe (Astree 7733), claim is made that Corbetta became known to Louis >when Lully had the two play together in le Ballet de la Galanterie du temps. I >believe this was1656. Corbetta must have been proud of this performance, since >it is mentioned in both prefaces to his book of 1671. > >I reason (conjecture again!) that guitar instructions from Corbetta to the >King would have been earlier rather than later. Jourdan was succeeded by his >son, Louis Anne, in 1695. So, why was it de Visee, not Jourdan, who was >specifically called on to play the guitar to Louis while the latter was >recovering from his almost-fatal illness of 1686? The guitar-loving king must >have admired his playing. (Incidentally, it was while performing the Te Deum >written to celebrate Louis' recovery from this illness that Lully suffered the >wound that caused his death.) > >Peter > > >On Mar 2, 2014, at 1:22 PM, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: > >Many many thanks for all this fascinating information. Jourdan must have >been quite an important person in Louis' household. I have only one >comment - Corbetta died in 1681 so he can't have succeeded Jourdon in 1695 >and in any case he spent most of his last 20 years in England although he >visited France again on a number of occasions. Perhaps he gave Louis a few >master classes when he was in Paris. > >Best >Monica > To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
