and
Bacchus in Act 5 of Jean-Joseph Mouret's
Le triomphe des sens Jean-Joseph was the son of Jean Bertrand Mouret, a silk merchant, who gave his son a good education and, noting his early gifts for music, supported his musical studies. Mouret sang and composed with success and, around the age of twenty-five, settled in
Paris. Talented and agreeable, he became well-known there, and in 1708 he was introduced to
Anne, Duchess of Maine, whose
salon at
Sceaux was a center of courtly society in the declining years of the reign of
Louis XIV. He was able to secure the Duchess's patronage, and she made him her
Surintendant de la musique at Sceaux shortly thereafter. At Sceaux Mouret produced operas and was in charge of the sixteen bi-weekly
Grandes nuits in the season of 1714–15. In this capacity, he produced
intermèdes and allegorical cantatas in the court
masque tradition, and other music, in the company of the most favoured musicians, for the most select audience in France. Mouret's
opéra-ballet Les fêtes, ou Le triomphe de Thalie ["Festivities, or The Triumph of Thalia"] with a libretto by
Joseph de La Font was presented at the
Opéra on 19 August 1714. In the prologue, in a scenic design representing the stage of the Opéra,
Thalia, the muse of Comedy, triumphs over
Melpomene, the muse of Tragedy. This dramatic conceit resulted in a
succès de scandale, obliging La Font to immediately prepare a
nouvelle entrée ["new entry/act"] entitled
La critique des fêtes de Thalie (presented on 9 October 1714). In the 1720 edition the title was changed to
Les fêtes de Thalie, and in 1722 another
nouvelle entrée ["new entry/act"] was added,
La provençale, which featured regional costumes, instruments, and well-known melodies sung in the
Provençal dialect. This new act proved to be very popular, and continued to be performed as a standalone fragment up until the late 1770's. In 1714, Mouret also received an appointment as the director of the orchestra of the Opéra, a post which he held until 1718. From 1717 to 1737 he directed the
Nouveau Théâtre Italien for which he composed divertissements that accompanied, for example, the tender comedies of
Marivaux, and which, printed, fill six volumes. At court Mouret maintained a post as singer, and directed the grand divertissements offered by the
Regent, the duc d'Orléans at his château of Villers-Cotterêts on the occasion of
Louis XV's coming-of-age in 1722. Concurrently, he was director of the concert series established by the orchestra of the Opéra, the
Concert Spirituel (1728–1734), positions which provided a public outlet for his own music and which permitted him to live in affluence. Mouret married Madeleine Prompt de Saint-Marc in Versailles on October 23, 1711, and had one daughter, Françoise Louise, born in Paris on October 21, 1722. However, his later years were overshadowed by financial and social disappointments. Sinking into poverty, Mouret was committed to the
insane asylum at Charenton on 14 April 1738 and died there on 10 December. The location of his grave is unknown. ==Works==