ballet de cour

An entertainment combining music, spectacle, dancing, song, and drama, developed at the French court during the second half of the 16th century. Light-hearted allegories based on classical mythology, ballets de cour played an important role in the evolution of ballet. One of the best known is the Ballet comique de la reine (1581), commissioned by Catherine de' Medici.

It was the patronage of Catherine de' Medici, who would have seen similar entertainments at the Florentine court in her youth, that encouraged the development of lavish ballets de cour. As in a masque, a closely related court entertainment, the parts were often played by members of the court - in the Ballet comique de la reine, commissioned by Catherine de' Medici to celebrate the marriage of her daughter Marguerite de Lorraine, both she and her daughter had roles.

The costume designs surviving from the early 17th century, especially those by Daniel Rabel (1578-1637), indicate the grotesque and humorous, as well as the opulent, aspects of these entertainments.

The fashion for hugely expensive and spectacular ballets de cour continued in the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII.