(b 1604; d Turin, 19 July 1667). Italian poet, choreographer and composer. He began a brilliant political and artistic career in the service of Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy. About 1630 he entered the household of Duke Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, on whose death in 1637 he became chief counsellor and favourite of the Duchess Cristina, accumulating honours and fortune. Except for an enforced sojourn in Paris from 1640 to 1644 his official duties kept him at the Savoy court where he wrote or conceived more than 30 ballets, plays with music, water festivals and carousels to celebrate significant political alliances and Cristina's birthdays. His first work, Bacco trionfante dell'India e caccia pastorale, dates from 1624, his last, La perla peregrina, from 1660.
Variety, ingenuity and spectacle characterize all d'Aglié's works, which also include elegant and witty allusions to court personalities (Il Gridelino, 1652) or to specific tastes (Il tabacco, 1650) as well as using mythological themes to praise political achievements (Hercole expugnator, 1635). In greatly expanding the role of choreography, he seems to have been influenced by French practice and can thus be compared with Isaac de Benserade. He also provided more opportunities for musical development. In works such as L'educatione d'Achille (1650) solos alternated with duets and massed choirs. While sustained solo vocal roles are rare, ensembles of instruments and voices were frequently used for melodramatic effects, and they were sometimes given interesting representational roles (as in the musical and choreographic dispute that accompanies the entry of King Tugine in La perla peregrina, 1660). D'Aglié composed some of the music himself; the music for four of his works is in the manuscript I-Tn 9m.11.83–6.
A. Solerti: ‘Feste musicali alla corte di Savoia nella prima metà del secolo XVII’, RMI, xi (1904), 675–724
G. Tani: ‘Le comte d'Aglié et le ballet de cour en Italie’, Les fêtes de la Renaissance [I]: Royaumont 1955, 221–33
M. Viale Ferrero: Feste delle Madame reali di Savoia (Turin, 1965)
M.M. McGowan: ‘Les fêtes de cour en Savoie: l'oeuvre de Philippe d'Aglié’, Revue d'histoire du théâtre, iii (1970), 183–241
MARGARET M. McGOWAN