page_title: Giacomo Torelli
section_title: Career in France
hierarchical_section_title: Giacomo Torelli / Biography / Career in France
caption_attribution_description: English: Set design for Feste theatrali per la Finta pazza , drama del sigr Giulio Strozzi, rappresentate nel Piccolo Borbone in Parigi quest anno 1645 et da Giacomo Torelli, words by Giulio Strozzi and engravings of the set designs by Giacomo Torelli
context_page_description: Giacomo Torelli was an Italian stage designer, engineer, and architect. His work in stage design, particularly his designs of machinery for creating spectacular scenery changes and other special effects, was extensively engraved and hence survives as the most complete record of mid-seventeenth-century set design.
context_section_description: When the Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin succeeded Cardinal Richelieu as the chief minister of France in 1642, he decided to introduce Italian opera to Paris. In June 1645 at the request of the regent Anne of Austria, the Duke of Parma sent Torelli to France to work on a production of La finta pazza in which Torelli largely repeated his designs for Venice. Mazarin had recruited Italian singers from Florence, but catering to French taste, comic ballet interludes choreographed by Giambattista Balbi replaced the choruses at the ends of the acts, and some of the recitative was spoken rather than sung. Performed in the large hall of the Petit-Bourbon beginning on 14 December 1645, the production was a  great success, and the spectacular scenic effects created by Torelli were received with enthusiasm. 
  The success of La finta pazza encouraged Mazarin's ambitions, and he proceeded to mount another Italian opera, Egisto. Although the composer has not been identified with certainty, it is considered likely to have been the Egisto with music by Francesco Cavalli. According to the memoirs of Madame de Motteville the opera was given in the smaller theatre of the Palais-Royal, but it is now believed that it was presented in the larger theatre in the east wing, and that Torelli made alterations for the installation of stage machinery. Egisto was performed in 1646, but was not as successful as La finta pazza.
  Nevertheless, Mazarin proceeded with a newly composed Italian opera, Luigi Rossi's Orfeo. Torelli worked with the French stage designer Charles Errard and his assistants Noël Coypel and Gilbert de Sève in creating the sets and scenic effects, and more extensive alterations for the installation of the stage machinery were made to the Palais-Royal theatre where the opera was to be performed. Another group of Italian singers was brought to France, and after many delays Orfeo finally premiered on 2 March 1647. By this time opposition to Italian opera (and Mazarin) was beginning to arise, and the work was criticised for being too Italian and too costly, but even so, Torelli's scenic effects were well received.
  Although ostracised as a dependant of Mazarin during the Fronde (1648–1653), Torelli managed to stay in Paris and designed the scenery for a new French play, Pierre Corneille's Andromède (with music by Dassoucy). The Troupe Royale of the Hôtel de Bourgogne were to perform it, but their usual stage was unsuitable for the scene-shifting machinery and special effects of a pièce à machine. Originally planned for the theatre in the Palais-Royal, Andromède was transferred sometime before the first performance to the Petit-Bourbon, which could accommodate a larger audience. Many of Torelli's set pieces created for Orfeo were moved and reused for Andromède, which premiered on 1 February 1650. François Chauveau engraved a series of six depictions of the settings of the prologue and five acts, which were published at Rouen in 1651, both separately and with the second edition of the play.
  After King Louis XIV’s return to Paris in 1653 Torelli became involved more in ballet de cour than in opera, reflecting the passion of the king for dancing. He has traditionally been credited with the designs for the Ballet de la Nuit, performed on 23 February 1653 at the Petit-Bourbon, although there is no definitive evidence for it. In 1659 with the arrival in Paris of the Italian theatre-designing family of Gaspare Vigarani and his sons Carlo and Lodovico, Torelli soon fell from royal favour. Torelli’s career in France came to a definitive end in 1661, when he worked on sets for Molière’s Les fâcheux, presented by Nicholas Fouquet as part of his grand fête at Vaux-le-Vicomte in honour of the King, an overly ostentatious display which ultimately led to Fouquet’s imprisonment.
caption: Set design for La finta pazza (Paris, 1645)
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