LULLI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. – Musician, born in Florence on 29 Nov. 1632, died in Paris on 22 March 1687.
As a boy he was taken to Paris by the Chevalier de Guise. His career was swift and fortunate thanks to the favour of Louis XIV, who first placed him at the head of the Petits violons and in 1661 appointed him Superintendent General of Music and composer of the chambre du Roi, granting him letters of nobility (de Lully) after his naturalisation as a French subject. Though Italian, L. is the founder of French musical theatre. A shrewd businessman, he acquired from Perrin the monopoly of all musical activity in France and brought prestige to the Académie Royale de Musique which he had founded. He composed numerous ballets and intermezzos in the French taste, and the stage works Cadmus and Hermione (1673), Alceste (1674), Theseus (1675), Perseus (1682), Roland (1685), Armida (1686), etc. He also wrote sacred music, especially motets, among which a celebrated Miserere for two choirs (c. 1664) was particularly admired.