Jean-Joseph Mouret

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.

In the 1720 edition the title was changed to Les fêtes de Thalie, and in 1722 a new opening was added, "La provençale," which featured regional costumes, instruments, and well-known melodies sung in the Provençal dialect.

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.

He contributed to the emergence of the distinctively French genres of lyric tragedy and opera-ballet but his jealousy of the rising star of Jean-Philippe Rameau led to the bitterness and madness in which he ended his days: Mouret also wrote airs, divertissements, cantatilles, motets, and instrumental works (sonatas, fanfares).

The first suite, renowned for the arrangement of its opening rondeau which serves as the Masterpiece Theatre theme, is entitled "Fanfare for trumpets, timpani, violins, and oboes" and dedicated to the son of the Duchess of Maine, the Prince of Dombes.