About the work
The Bourgeois Gentleman (Le Bourgeois gentilhomme) is a comédie-ballet by Molière with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and choreography by Pierre Beauchamp, first performed for the court of Louis XIV at the Château of Chambord on 14 October 1670.
Plot
The wealthy but uneducated Parisian merchant Monsieur Jourdain is desperate to pass as a nobleman and takes lessons in music, dance, fencing and philosophy. He courts a marquise and wants to marry his daughter above her station, opposing her love for a bourgeois suitor. When the suitor's servant tricks Jourdain into a mock Turkish ennoblement ceremony, Jourdain finally consents to the marriage.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as the high point of Molière and Lully's collaboration and helped establish the comédie-ballet as a form at the French court. It remains a widely performed satire of social ambition.