caa a22 4500 388109955 CHVBK 20180307125350.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1999 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0307883300020757 doi S0307883300020757 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0307883300020757 ‘A Mess of Russians left us but of late': Diplomatic Blunder, Literary Satire, and the Muscovite Ambassador's 1668 Visit to Paris Theatres [Elektronische Daten] In October 1672, a highly select audience in Moscow witnessed the court's first theatrical production, a setting of Artakserksovo deistvo (The Play of Ahasuerus) based on the biblical story of Esther. A month later, in contrast, Parisians would witness the escalating rivalry between Molière and Lully—as the former continued to capitalize on their tragédie-ballet, Psyché (with Lully's music), while the latter prepared to launch his first French opera, Les Fêtes de l'Amour et de Bacchus (with Molière's lyrics).1 At first glance there would seem to be little connection between the fledgling Muscovite theatre at Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich's court, which in the event was to be closed down at his death only four years later, and the public theatres of Paris with their lyrical offerings of comédies-ballets, tragédies-ballets and, most recently, pastoral opera. Yet the two are linked in many ways, some subtle and some obvious, and the influences are both mutual and unexpected. Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1999 Jensen Claudia R. Claudia R. Jensen is Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Music, University of Washington at Seattle Powell John S. John S. Powell is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Tulsa. Theatre Research International Cambridge University Press 24/2(1999), 131-144 0307-8833 24:2<131 1999 24 TRI https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883300020757 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883300020757 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Jensen Claudia R. Claudia R. Jensen is Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Music, University of Washington at Seattle NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Powell John S. John S. Powell is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Tulsa NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theatre Research International Cambridge University Press 24/2(1999), 131-144 0307-8833 24:2<131 1999 24 TRI CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge