Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), its text by Molière and its music by Lully, is widely recognized as the high-point of the comédie-ballet. Its success as a comédie-ballet is owing largely to the way in which the music and dance are woven into the fabric of the action. Formally, the published version of the play is structured in five acts (although the original version was laid out in three) with musical interludes between each act. But this is somewhat misleading, as the action is essentially continuous, and the so-called intermèdes are far more integrated than their name would suggest. The interlude betwe

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Published 05 April 2004

Citation: Prest, Julia. "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme". The Literary Encyclopedia. 5 April 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4089, accessed 20 November 2009.]