When he composed Les Arts Florissants, Marc Antoine Charpentier was in the service of the Duchess of Guise, where he enjoyed the presence of a small but exquisite ensemble of musicians. Les Arts Florissants, which Charpentier called both Idyle en musique and Opéra, was written, as far as can be judged, in 1685 and was thus subject to the royal patent for operas held by Lully. Simply put, this patent limited the number of musicians and singers in dramatic musical works for all others, thus securing Lully's monopoly in the field of opera. Charpentier lived long enough to survive Lully and this ban and to write his completed opera Médée, but the skill with which he overcame the legal restrictions in the present work is perhaps an even greater testament to his genius.