Lully's recitatives and arias established a melodic style that was exactly suited to the subtle rhythms of the French language. His fourty-piece orchestra of strings, flutes, oboes, bassons, trumpets, and drums provided colorful contrast of instrumental timbres. Lully set the pattern for French opera for many years to come. He popularized the minuet, was the father of the modern orchestra, the first dictator-conductor, and the inventor of the French overture.
In 1733, Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote "Hippolyte et Aricie" and became the acknowledged master of French opera. Rameau, famous as a theorist and composer of chamber music, was interested in all forms of theatrical music. His musical background was richer than Lully's, and his music is more varied in harmony, rhythm, and instrumental color. A revival of a Lully opera today is almost unthinkable, where Rameau's works are produced often.
The war of the Buffoons was one aspect of the struggle between those members of the court who liked opera as it was and those who thought it was an artificial form that could be improved. French composers of the new persuasion invented the "opera comique." This combined a romantic story with spoken dialogue and songs that were like popular French vaudevilles.
During the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, French opera returned to its magnificent standars of the past, and Paris became the magnet that attracted the leading composers of Italy (Cherubini, Rossini, Spontini, Belini, and Verdi) and of Germany (Meyerbeer and Wagner).
Hector Berlios, the outstanding Romantic composer in France, wrote several operas, ranging from the slight, lyrical "Beatrice et Benedict," to one of the most monumental of all operas, "Les Troyens".
