Marlezon ballet - what is it?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Do you know the expression "Marleson ballet"? What it is? Is it about a real work of theatrical art, or does the phrase have nothing to do with a choreographic production? Let's try to figure it out.

Flower?

Of course, if you breed Saintpaulias, then for you, perhaps, the Marlezon Ballet is a violet, or rather a seedling of the Uzambara violet, bred by the Russian breeder Konstantin Morev. A rosy-nude lush wonder with double cherry-white piping. However, for the rest of the population (not flower growers), this phrase means something completely different.

Ballet about thrush hunting

The French word "merlaison" is not a geographical name, but a neologism coined in the 17th century by King Louis XIII the Just. This is the same monarch who later (contrary to historical truth) Alexandre Dumas portrayed as a weak-willed and spineless ruler under Cardinal Richelieu. Louis XIII was gifted musically, composed songs, drew and danced beautifully, and even became the author of the work, which, in fact, we are talking about. The king called the play "Le ballet de la Merlaison" -"Marleson Ballet". What did this mean in literal translation from French?

Literally - "Ballet about the hunting of thrushes" or "Ballet of thrushing". Yes, yes, it turns out that such small black birds have been hunted with pleasure since antiquity. They say that the meat of these birds is unusually tasty. Louis XIII was also a great connoisseur of it. Together with his friends, the king performed the first production of the play, which was shown at the Shrovetide carnival in the magnificent Chantilly castle near Paris. The premiere took place in 1635, on March 15. Two days later, the performance was shown again - in the Catholic abbey of Royomont.

Europeans saw their subtext in the play. Two lines were skillfully intertwined in the plot: a direct “declaration of love” to the blackbird hunt (which Louis adored) and a hidden message from the king’s new lover, Louise de Lafayette. In 16 acts of the performance, erotic overtones were visible. Moreover, contemporaries saw it as politically motivated, because in those days ballet was one of the forms of conversation about current events.

By the way, even today you can see the name "Marlezon Ballet" on posters. What does it mean? The fact is that four centuries after the creation of a multifaceted performance, the production was resumed. In 2011, the French company "Shine of the Muses", which studies and restores works of art from the Baroque period, reconstructed the play. Enthusiasts tried to reproduce authentic music and choreography as accurately as possible. So todayyou can buy a DVD called "Marlezon Ballet". What kind of play this is, you can find out, as they say, “from the original source.”

Marlezon ballet in Russian

However, for any Russian-speaking person, its name has long become a household name. “Yes, this is some kind of second act of the Marleson ballet!” - we exclaim, sometimes not realizing what the etymology of this expression is. Meanwhile, the catchphrase has become entrenched in our language thanks to the cult Soviet film D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers. There was no such scene in the book, so the aphorism has a purely domestic origin and existence. So, there is a ball in the Parisian town hall. "The second part of the Marlezon ballet!" - announces the master of ceremonies and immediately falls, knocked down by a young Gascon bursting onto the stairs, who arrived with pendants for the queen.

Thus, this expression began to mean a sharp turn of events: sometimes leading to comical consequences, sometimes simply unexpected. Something that interrupts the measured flow of life, its usual course and turns a solemn, decorous action into a mess, confusion, chaos. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a substitution of concepts, and the very expression "Marleson ballet" becomes synonymous with boredom and drag, although in fact it is an incredibly beautiful piece of music.