El Fenix de París

The 17th century in France was a century of dance. Would this still have been the case without the influence of Spain? When he married the Spanish Infanta Anne of Austria, Louis XIII not only infused the royal line with Spanish blood through his son Louis XIV, he also brought folias, sarabandas, españolas and españoletas north of the Pyrenees. Illustrious players, the two monarchs ushered in a golden age of ballet in which Spanish dances and motives had a role to play.  Guest musicians or characters in royal spectacles, the Spanish took their place in the salons of the day - if it wasn’t Briceño being asked to produce an aria,  it was Le Bailly called on to invent a Spanish Locura for the Ballet de la Folie.

Following the example of the royal court, the city also embraced the fascination with Spanish culture. Vocal and instrumental music reflected this taste, with concert programmes featuring the tono humano in place of the air de cour, and the guitar often preferred to the lute. Inspired by the immense popularity of the Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca, the French composer Étienne Moulinié set aside national pride to experiment with this fashionable style, as demonstrated in El baxtel está en la playa.