Comedy-Ballet

Once his theater troupe was established in Paris, Molière knew he had to please both Louis XIV, his most important patron, and the bulk of the theater-going bourgeois audience. Perhaps his greatest innovation in this regard was the invention of the "comedy-ballet," a form that combines song and dance with farce and "comedy of manners" (witty comedy that is satirical of a particular social class). Comedy-ballets were Molière's most popular genre, and often, especially in The Imaginary Invalid, their musical intervals provide an important and insightful commentary on the main action. A good example of this is Cléante and Angélique's pastoral song, which directly mimics their own situation.

Comedies of manners originated in ancient Rome and, particularly in Molière's work, are known for combining careful attention to character development with the use of characters of a certain "type...