Franco-Italian composer Jean-Baptiste Lully was BOTD in 1632. Born in Florence, he was a child musician and street performer, before being taken to Paris to serve as Italian tutor to King Louis XIV’s cousin Anne-Marie Louise d’Orléans. After Anne-Marie was exiled in 1652, he entered Louis’ service, dancing with him in the Royal ballet and was eventually appointed Master of the King’s Music. He had a long collaboration with the playwright Molière, creating plays with musical interludes and ballets. His ballet music was lively and fast-paced, based on popular dances like gavottes and sarabandes. After falling out with Molière, he became the director of the Académie Royal de Music, giving him a monopoly over creating operas. In his operas including Armide and Phaëton, he dispensed with many the conventions of Italian opera, focusing on drama and plot development. Ruthless in his pursuit of power, Lully used his influence with the king to eliminate potential rivals. Married with six children, he had a number of well-publicised affairs with men, forming part of a homosexual enclave that included Louis’ brother Philippe, duc d’Orléans. In 1685, he was involved in a scandalous affair with a handsome fat-bottomed young page named Brunet. Following pressure from Louis’ mistress Madame de Maintenon to rid the court of homosexuality, Lully lost his standing at court and was forced to break with Brunet. In 1687, he injured his foot while beating time during a musical performance, refusing medical treatment even after the wound became gangrenous. He died three months later, aged 54. Now considered the leading figure of French Baroque music, his work was hugely influential on later composers including Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Handel, and is still regularly performed.