coryphee

Noun

coryphée (plural coryphées)

1. (historical, Ancient Greece) The conductor or leader of the chorus of a drama.
   • The piece [...] contains a passage for men's voices marked "Les Travailleurs," topped by a tenor solo (in alto clef) marked "Coryphée," a term originally meaning leader of the chorus, as in a Greek tragedy. [...] [T]he aforementioned "Coryphée" line grows out of a recitative for first tenor.1986, Ralph P. Locke, “The Rue Monsigny and Salle Taitbout: Music in the Formative Years”, in Music, Musicians and the Saint-Simonians, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part...
2. (broadly) The chief or leader of an interest or party.
   • It was likewiſe cuſtomary to drink hard at theſe kinds of feaſts; yet it ſeems, according to the ſame author [Posidonius], that the coryphee, or head-gueſt, always began firſt, and put the cup, or rather pitcher, about to his next neighbour, till it had gone round: for, it ſeems, they all drank out...1748, George Sale et al., “The Antient State of the Gauls, to Their Conquest by Julius Cæsar, and from thence to the Irruption of the Franks”, in An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of...
3. (ballet) A ballet dancer ranking above a member of the corps de ballet and below a soloist.
   • Mademoiselle Coralie Montmorrillion, a talented artiste from the grand opera, at Paris, and now principal coryphée at the theatre royal— [...]1839 March, William E[vans] Burton, “Leaves from a Life in London. No. VI. Coralie, the Coryphee.”, in William E[vans] Burton, editor, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and American Monthly Review...