La chute de Phaéton, comédie en musique (1694)

Marc-Antoine Legrand’s La chute de Phaéton, comédie en musique (1694) is the only surviving opera parody from France that was written outside of Paris in the seventeenth century. Part spoken theater and part musical drama, Legrand’s work sets excerpts of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Phaéton to a narrative about a troupe of musicians in the city of Lyon who try to rescue their failing opera company from financial collapse. Based on actual events, La chute de Phaéton cleverly transforms Lully’s moral lessons on the disastrous consequences of hubris into a scathing commentary on the opera industry—and on the genre of opera itself. The musical portion amounts to approximately thirty minutes of performance time and includes dances, choruses, récitatifs, and airs, making it an ideal tool for introducing students to French baroque music as well as for offering an opportunity of creative exploration for those more experienced with the repertoire.