The Rise and Fall of JB Lully

The Early Music Show

As part of Radio 3’s programming around LGBTQ+ Pride, Hannah French is joined by musicologists Berta Joncus and Lola Salem to explore the life and career of Jean-Baptiste Lully, who shot to fame at the court of King Louis XIV.

Lully was an Italian violinist, guitarist and dancer, who caught the eye of the young King when they danced together in a ballet in 1653. Before long, he became an indispensable part of the Paris and Versailles music scenes, entertaining the royal family for the next thirty years and earning a very good salary from doing so. Lully was bisexual, and for many years his relationships with both men and women were never questioned – there was an implicit acceptance to same-sex desires among the upper echelons of 17th Century Parisian society.

But in 1683, Queen Marie-Thérèse died, and the king's secret marriage to Madame de Maintenon changed everything. Devotion came to the fore at court, the king's enthusiasm for opera dissipated, he became increasingly annoyed by what he now considered Lully's dissolute lifestyle, and everything began to unravel…