Opera History, the Travel Edition (original) (raw)
Related papers
Music & Letters, 2018
Due to the grand scale of the productions, the unmatched musical forces, the virtuosic vocal display and the complicated literary narratives of personal triumph drawn from chronicles of history, French grand opera was perceived by many throughout the nineteenth century as an aspirational art form that redefined what was possible on the dramatic stage. Wherever French grand opera was presented, be it in Switzerland, Russia or Spain, in translation or severely reduced due to local censorship, the works exported a world-view that highlighted the liberal forces of a bourgeois city centre founded upon revolution.
Genre, Identity, and Institutional Authority at the Paris Opéra in the "Age of Gluck," 1770–1781
2020
In January 1770, the Académie Royale de Musique-more colloquially known as the Paris Opéra-inaugurated its theatre, having lost its original home to a fire in 1762. This new theatre, the first in Paris built specifically for operatic productions, would also meet a fiery end just over a decade later, in June 1781. The lifespan of this theatre frames one of the most tumultuous periods in French operatic history. This decade saw six different administrations, ranging from an authoritarian entrepreneur to self-governance by the performers themselves, each of which employed various tactics to achieve their artistic goals. Under the guidance of these administrations, the Opéra underwent a radical shift in its repertoire and programming. Long considered old-fashioned in its maintenance of operas up to a century old, by decade's end the Opéra had largely abandoned its ancient works and embraced newly composed operas. The Opéra also shifted its programming from repeated performances of a single opera to near-daily variety, with the number of different works performed over the course of a single season trebled by the end of the decade. These quite radical shifts in French operatic culture have gone largely overlooked due to their convergence with the arrival of Christoph Gluck in 1774. While Gluck plays an important part in the history of this period-his arrival in Paris signaled the end of the Paris Opéra's isolation from mainstream European operatic practice-his works have dominated the discourse, obfuscating both the contributions of other composers and the context of the institution itself. Combatting the notion that Gluck was the driving force behind these systemic shifts in late eighteenth-century French opera, this dissertation approaches the period from an institutional ii perspective. I examine the goals and limitations of each administration and argue that the directors, far more than individual composers, had a direct impact on the works that appeared on stage, how they were presented to the audience, and what constituted a "French" opera. I approach the repertoire of the Opéra on a quotidian basis, focusing on the interplay of operas over the course of a season rather than the theatre's most celebrated works. This approach sheds light on relatively unknown composers and operas that are deserving of more in-depth study and draws attention to genres beyond the tragédie lyrique that have received limited attention. It is only through examining the institutional operations and comprehensive repertoire of the Opéra that we can understand how it functioned, both as a for-profit artistic venture that needed to please its paying audience, as well as a site of national identity.
Opera and Society in Italy and France from Monteverdi to Bourdieu
2007
Volumes for Cambridge Studies in Opera explore the cultural, political and social influences of the genre. As a cultural art form, opera is not produced in a vacuum. Rather, it is influenced, whether directly or in more subtle ways, by its social and political environment. In turn, opera leaves its mark on society and contributes to shaping the cultural climate. Studies to be included in the series will look at these various relationships including the politics and economics of opera, the operatic representation of women or the singers who portrayed them, the history of opera as theatre, and the evolution of the opera house.
Staging Grand Opera - historically informed?
Recent trends in opera studies have included voice and multi-media developments, but relatively little attention has been paid to historical staging practice and its relation to opera's evolving aesthetic during the nineteenth century. Given French opera's emphasis on visual spectacle, there has been some interest in publishing staging manuals, but the light such documents shed on individual works and conventions is only just beginning to be interpreted. The information that Italian disposizioni sceniche offer about individual works has been examined more extensively, but the exchanges between different European traditions (e.g. the visits made by French set designers to Italian theatres; and the consequences of Verdi's time spent in Paris), and the wider influence of French spectacle are less well understood. This workshop seeks to advance our understanding of the musico-visual aesthetic of nineteenth-century opera, paying particular attention to staging, and to put French practices in dynamic contrast with Italian practices of the period. We would like to: Share information about the availability of primary sources and establish what sorts of evidence they provide Interrogate practices in France and Italy through individual case studies, and identify examples of influence and difference Consider how we incorporate staging into opera studies
The study of opera in the second half of the eighteenth century has ourished during the last several decades, and our knowledge of the operas written during that period and of their aesthetic, social and political contexts has vastly increased. Much of what we have learned in these and other areas of scholarship has been recorded in the form of articles published in scholarly journals and in collections of essays. This volume will explore opera and operatic life in the years 1750–1800 through several English-language essays, in a selection intended to represent the last few decades of scholarship in all its excitement and variety. This introduction provides some context for the essays that follow. It briey discusses some of the institutional developments and intellectual trends that have informed scholarship in eighteenth-century opera and mentions some of the criteria that have guided my choice of the essays reprinted here. In following the publisher's policy of limiting this collection to essays written in English, I did not mean to suggest that these essays were in any way superior to the best essays of my colleagues writing in other languages.
Cambridge Opera Journal, 2024
In seventeenth-century Paris, the performance of an opera or other staged spectacle was an interactive event that engendered countless subsequent performative acts. An operatic premiere infused the Parisian songscape with new musical material that reverberated in various social spheres, from the galant airs performed by mondains at gatherings of literary elites to the ribald songs performed by street singers. The chansons of Philippe-Emmanuel de Coulanges provide a window into the musical games that unfolded across fashionable Paris. These traces of ephemeral song networks illuminate how spectacles had a ripple effect throughout Paris and beyond when individuals performed, manipulated, quoted and parodied operatic artefacts in various social contexts and spaces. The study of the ways in which audiences interacted with operatic music in turn reveals how contemporary spectators understood, listened to and valued a work and its components, as they dissected and reused elements in their quotidian social experiences.
Opera and Music Drama (1850-1900)
Survey of repertoire, critical issues, and cultural themes in European opera of the later nineteenth century. Chapter 14 of _The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music_ (Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 371-423.