Le Bourgeouis Gentilhomme was one of the most successful collaborations between "Les Duex Grande Baptistes", as Lully and Moliere were called. It belongs to the genre of the , which was a very elastic term for a play with incidental music. Many of the forms used in the were developed and used in the later. This includes Lully's , the French , and choruses and ballet. It did not have to contain much dance or singing, but in this case there are several vocal numbers woven right into the plot, for one of the characters is a music master, and the main character a wealthy bourgeouis gentleman indulging in foolish pretensions.

The play was written on demand for Louis XIV after the Turkish ambassador had been to visit Paris. Louis had found him comical and Turkish customs rather silly, so he asked Moliere to write a play with a Turkish scene. The play is broad and joyous, and ridicules snobbery and fools. The Turkish theme is within a diversionary act in which Moliere even invents sounds to imitate the Turkish language. Moliere's text was perfect for Lully, and lent itself to the long, flexible lines of French . Lully displays his dramatic genius everywhere with his musical interludes. He was a dramatist and comedian as well as a musician, and had a good sense of timing and comic delivery that helped him create effective musical .

The play closes with a ballet, which wasn't uncommon at the time. The "Ballet de Nations" has nothing to do with the plot. It consists of several , which merely means ballet sequences. Lully composed most of his ballets to dance forms derived from court dances. Homophonous and shimmering, the music directly reflects the splendor of the court of Versailles.

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