bignaf wrote:lots of good stories about Lully. he was granted monopoly over opera in France. he died from a conducting accident.
was it premiered posthumously?
I had to find out more about this story. From Wikipedia:
On January 8, 1687, Lully was conducting a Te Deum in honor of Louis XIV's recent recovery from illness. He was beating time by banging a long staff (a precursor to the baton) against the floor, as was the common practice at the time, when he struck his toe, creating an abscess. The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread resulting in his death on the 22nd of March.
