 Philippe Quinault, a longtime family friend of the Perraults, quickly gained a reputation as the librettist for the new musical genre known as opera, collaborating with composer Jean-Baptiste Lully.After "Alceste" (1674) was denounced by traditionalists who rejected it for deviating from classical theater, Perrault wrote in response "Critique de l'Opéra" (1674) in which he praised the merits of "Alceste" over the tragedy of the same name by Euripides.This treatise on "Alceste" initiated the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns ("Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes"), which pitted supporters of the literature of Antiquity (the "Ancients") against supporters of the literature from the century of Louis XIV (the "Moderns").