Opéra comique
Encyclopedia
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera
that contains spoken dialogue and aria
s. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent
(and to a lesser extent the Comédie-Italienne
), which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections. Associated with the Paris theatre of the same name, the Opéra-Comique
, opéra comique is not always comic or light in nature — indeed, Carmen
, perhaps the most famous opéra comique, is a tragedy
.
). In the middle of the 18th century, composers began to write original music to replace the vaudevilles, under the influence of the lighter types of Italian opera (especially Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
's La serva padrona
). This form of opéra comique was often known as comédie mêlée d'ariettes, but the range of subject matter it covered expanded far beyond the merely comic. By the 19th century, opéra comique often meant little more than works with spoken dialogue performed at the Opéra-Comique
theatre, as opposed to works with recitative
which appeared at the Paris Opéra
. Thus the most famous of all opéras comiques, Georges Bizet
's Carmen
, is on a tragic subject. As Elizabeth Bartlet and Richard Langham Smith note in their Grove
article on the subject, composers and librettists frequently rejected the use of the umbrella term opéra comique in favour of more precise labels.
, contributed works in the new form.
The Querelle des Bouffons (1752–54), a quarrel between advocates of French and Italian music, was a major turning-point for opéra comique. Members of the pro-Italian faction, such as the philosopher and musician Jean-Jacques Rousseau
, attacked serious French opera, represented by the tragédies en musique of Jean-Philippe Rameau
, in favour of what they saw as the simplicity and "naturalness" of Italian comic opera (opera buffa
), exemplified by Pergolesi
's La serva padrona
, which had recently been performed in Paris by a travelling Italian troupe. In 1752, Rousseau produced a short opera influenced by Pergolesi, Le devin du village
, in an attempt to introduce his ideals of musical simplicity and naturalness to France. Its success attracted the attention of the Foire theatres. The next year, the head of the Saint Laurent theatre,
Jean Monnet
, commissioned the composer Antoine Dauvergne
to produce a French opera in the style of La serva padrona. The result was Les troqueurs
, which Monnet passed off as the work of an Italian composer living in Vienna who was fluent in French, thus fooling the partisans of Italian music into giving it a warm welcome. Dauvergne's opera, with its simple plot, everyday characters and Italianate melodies, had a huge influence on subsequent opéra comique, setting a fashion for composing new music rather than recycling old tunes. Where it differed from later opéras comiques, however, was that it contained no spoken dialogue. In this, Dauvergne was following the example of Pergolesi's La serva padrona.
The short, catchy melodies which replaced the vaudevilles were known as ariettes and many opéras comiques in the late 18th century were styled comédies mêlées d'ariettes. Their librettists were often playwrights, skilled at keeping up with the latest trends in the theatre. Louis Anseaume
, Michel-Jean Sedaine
and Charles Simon Favart
were among the most famous of these dramatists. Notable composers of opéras comiques in the 1750s and 1760s include Egidio Duni, Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny
and François-André Danican Philidor
. Duni, an Italian working at the francophile court of Parma
, set Anseaume's libretto Le peintre amoureux amoureux de son modèle in 1757. Its success encouraged the composer to move to Paris permanently and he wrote 20 or so more works for the French stage. Monsigny collaborated with Sedaine in works which mixed comedy with a serious social and political element. Le roi et le fermier (1762) contains Enlightenment
themes such as the virtues of the common people and the need for liberty and equality. Their biggest success, Le déserteur
(1769), concerns the story of a soldier who has been condemned to death for deserting the army. Philidor's most famous opéra comique was Tom Jones
(1765), based on Henry Fielding
's novel of the same name, is notable for its realistic characters and its many ensembles.
The most important and popular composer of opéra comique in the late 18th century was André Ernest Modeste Grétry
. Grétry successfully blended Italian tunefulness with a careful setting of the French language. He was a versatile composer who expanded the range of opéra comique to cover a wide variety of subjects from the Oriental fairy tale Zémire et Azor
(1772) to the musical satire of Le jugement de Midas
(1778) and the domestic farce of L'amant jaloux
(also 1778). His most famous work was the historical "rescue opera", Richard Coeur-de-lion
(1784), which achieved international popularity, reaching London in 1786 and Boston
in 1797.
Between 1724 and 1762 the Opéra-Comique theatre was located at the Foire Saint Germain. In 1762 the company was merged with the Comédie-Italienne
and moved to the Hôtel de Bourgogne. In 1783 a new, larger home was created for it at the Théâtre Italien (later renamed the Salle Favart).
The French Revolution
brought many changes to musical life in Paris. In 1793 the name of the Comédie-Italienne was changed to the Opéra-Comique, but it no longer had a monopoly on performing operas with spoken dialogue and faced serious rivalry from the Théâtre Feydeau, which also produced works in the opéra comique style. Opéra comique generally became more dramatic and less comic and began to show the influence of musical Romanticism
. The chief composers at the Opéra-Comique during the Revolutionary era were Étienne Méhul
, Nicolas Dalayrac
, Rodolphe Kreutzer
and Henri Montan Berton
. Those at the Feydeau included Luigi Cherubini
, Pierre Gaveaux
, Jean-François Le Sueur
and François Devienne
. The works of Méhul (for example Stratonice
, 1792; Ariodant
, 1799), Cherubini (Lodoiska
, 1791; Médée
, 1797; Les deux journées
, 1800) and Le Sueur (La caverne
, 1793) in particular show the influence of serious French opera, especially Gluck, and a willingness to take on previously taboo subjects (e.g. incest in Méhul's Mélidore et Phrosine
, 1794; infanticide in Cherubini's famous Médée). Orchestration and harmony are more complex than in the music of the previous generation; attempts are made to reduce the amount of spoken dialogue; and unity is provided by techniques such as the "reminiscence motif" (recurring musical themes representing a character or idea).
In 1801 the Opéra-Comique and the Feydeau merged for financial reasons. The changing political climate - more stable under the rule of Napoleon - was reflected in musical fashion as comedy began to creep back into opéra-comique. The lighter new offerings of Boieldieu (such as Le calife de Bagdad
, 1800) and Isouard
(Cendrillon
, 1810) were a great success. Parisian audiences of the time also loved Italian opera, visiting the Théâtre Italien to see opera buffa
and works in the newly fashionable bel canto
style, especially those by Rossini, whose fame was sweeping across Europe. Rossini's influence began to pervade French opéra comique. Its presence is felt in Boieldieu's greatest success, La dame blanche
(1825) as well as later works by Auber
(Fra Diavolo
, 1830; Le domino noir
, 1837), Hérold
(Zampa
, 1831) and Adolphe Adam
(Le postillon de Longjumeau, 1836).
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
that contains spoken dialogue and aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
s. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent
Théâtre de la foire
Théâtre de la foire is the collective name given to the theatre put on at the annual fairs at Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent in Paris.-Foire Saint-Germain:The earliest references to the annual fair date to 1176...
(and to a lesser extent the Comédie-Italienne
Comédie-Italienne
Over time, there have been several buildings and several theatrical companies named the "Théâtre-Italien" or the "Comédie-Italienne" in Paris. Following the times, the theatre has shown both plays and operas...
), which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections. Associated with the Paris theatre of the same name, the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
, opéra comique is not always comic or light in nature — indeed, Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, perhaps the most famous opéra comique, is a tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
.
Use of the term
The term opéra comique is complex in meaning and cannot simply be translated as "comic opera". It originated in the early 18th century when it was applied to humorous and satirical plays performed at the theatres of the Paris fairs which contained songs with new words set to already existing music (vaudevillesVaudeville (song)
A vaudeville is a French satirical poem or song born of the 17th and 18th centuries. Its name is lent to the French theatrical entertainment comédie en vaudeville of the 19th and 20th century. From these vaudeville took its name....
). In the middle of the 18th century, composers began to write original music to replace the vaudevilles, under the influence of the lighter types of Italian opera (especially Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
's La serva padrona
La serva padrona
La serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
). This form of opéra comique was often known as comédie mêlée d'ariettes, but the range of subject matter it covered expanded far beyond the merely comic. By the 19th century, opéra comique often meant little more than works with spoken dialogue performed at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
theatre, as opposed to works with recitative
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
which appeared at the Paris Opéra
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
. Thus the most famous of all opéras comiques, Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, is on a tragic subject. As Elizabeth Bartlet and Richard Langham Smith note in their Grove
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
article on the subject, composers and librettists frequently rejected the use of the umbrella term opéra comique in favour of more precise labels.
Beginnings
Opéra comique began in the early eighteenth century in the theatres of the two annual Paris fairs, the Foire Saint Germain and the Foire Saint Laurent. Here plays began to include musical numbers called vaudevilles, which were existing popular tunes refitted with new words. The plays were humorous and often contained satirical attacks on the official theatres such as the Comédie Française. In 1715 the two fair theatres were brought under the aegis of an institution called the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique. In spite of fierce opposition from rival theatres the venture flourished and leading playwrights of the time, including Alain René Lesage and Alexis PironAlexis Piron
Alexis Piron was a French epigrammatist and dramatist.He was born at Dijon, where his father, Aimé Piron, was an apothecary. Piron senior wrote verse in the Burgundian language. Alexis began life as clerk and secretary to a banker, and then studied law...
, contributed works in the new form.
The late 18th century
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
, attacked serious French opera, represented by the tragédies en musique of Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
, in favour of what they saw as the simplicity and "naturalness" of Italian comic opera (opera buffa
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
), exemplified by Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...
's La serva padrona
La serva padrona
La serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
, which had recently been performed in Paris by a travelling Italian troupe. In 1752, Rousseau produced a short opera influenced by Pergolesi, Le devin du village
Le Devin du Village
Le devin du village is an interméde, a one-act opera by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who also wrote the libretto.It was first performed before the court at Fontainebleau on 18 October 1752 and at the Paris Opéra on 1 March 1753. King Louis XV loved the work so much that he offered Rousseau the great...
, in an attempt to introduce his ideals of musical simplicity and naturalness to France. Its success attracted the attention of the Foire theatres. The next year, the head of the Saint Laurent theatre,
Jean Monnet
Jean Monnet (director)
Jean Monnet was a French theatre impresario and writer.-Life:A baker's son, he was orphaned at age 8 and taken in by his uncle before moving into the service of the duchesse de Berry at age 15...
, commissioned the composer Antoine Dauvergne
Antoine Dauvergne
Antoine Dauvergne was a French composer and violinist. Dauvergne served as master of the Chambre du roi, director of the Concert Spirituel from 1762 to 1771, and director of the Opéra three times between 1769 and 1790...
to produce a French opera in the style of La serva padrona. The result was Les troqueurs
Les troqueurs
Les troqueurs is a comic opera in one act by the French composer Antoine Dauvergne, first performed at the Foire Saint-Laurent in Paris on 30 July 1753 and revived by the Opéra-Comique at the Hôtel de Bourgogne on 26 February 1762...
, which Monnet passed off as the work of an Italian composer living in Vienna who was fluent in French, thus fooling the partisans of Italian music into giving it a warm welcome. Dauvergne's opera, with its simple plot, everyday characters and Italianate melodies, had a huge influence on subsequent opéra comique, setting a fashion for composing new music rather than recycling old tunes. Where it differed from later opéras comiques, however, was that it contained no spoken dialogue. In this, Dauvergne was following the example of Pergolesi's La serva padrona.
The short, catchy melodies which replaced the vaudevilles were known as ariettes and many opéras comiques in the late 18th century were styled comédies mêlées d'ariettes. Their librettists were often playwrights, skilled at keeping up with the latest trends in the theatre. Louis Anseaume
Louis Anseaume
Louis Anseaume was a French librettist.He contributed the words for operas by André Ernest Modeste Grétry , Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, Egidio Romualdo Duni, Christoph Willibald Gluck, and François-André Danican Philidor...
, Michel-Jean Sedaine
Michel-Jean Sedaine
Michel-Jean Sedaine was a French dramatist, was born in Paris.- Biography :His father, who was an architect, died when Sedaine was quite young, leaving no fortune, and the boy began life as a mason's labourer...
and Charles Simon Favart
Charles Simon Favart
Charles Simon Favart was a French dramatist.Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the college of Louis-le-Grand, and after his father's death he carried on the business for a time...
were among the most famous of these dramatists. Notable composers of opéras comiques in the 1750s and 1760s include Egidio Duni, Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny
Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts .He is considered alongside André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor to have been the founder of a new musical genre, the opéra comique, laying a path for other French composers such as...
and François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor , often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the opéra comique...
. Duni, an Italian working at the francophile court of Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
, set Anseaume's libretto Le peintre amoureux amoureux de son modèle in 1757. Its success encouraged the composer to move to Paris permanently and he wrote 20 or so more works for the French stage. Monsigny collaborated with Sedaine in works which mixed comedy with a serious social and political element. Le roi et le fermier (1762) contains Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
themes such as the virtues of the common people and the need for liberty and equality. Their biggest success, Le déserteur
Le déserteur
Le déserteur is an opéra comique by the French composer Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny with a libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine. It was first staged at the Comédie-Italienne, Paris on 6 March 1769....
(1769), concerns the story of a soldier who has been condemned to death for deserting the army. Philidor's most famous opéra comique was Tom Jones
Tom Jones (Philidor)
Tom Jones is a comédie mêlée d'ariettes, a kind of opéra comique, by the French composer François-André Danican Philidor which first appeared at the Comédie-Italienne, Paris on 27 February 1765...
(1765), based on Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
's novel of the same name, is notable for its realistic characters and its many ensembles.
The most important and popular composer of opéra comique in the late 18th century was André Ernest Modeste Grétry
André Ernest Modeste Grétry
André Ernest Modeste Grétry was acomposer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège , who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras comiques....
. Grétry successfully blended Italian tunefulness with a careful setting of the French language. He was a versatile composer who expanded the range of opéra comique to cover a wide variety of subjects from the Oriental fairy tale Zémire et Azor
Zémire et Azor
Zémire et Azor is an opéra comique, described as a comédie-ballet mêlée de chants et de danses, in four acts by the Belgian composer André Grétry, The French text was by Jean François Marmontel based on La Belle et la bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, and Amour pour amour by P. C....
(1772) to the musical satire of Le jugement de Midas
Le jugement de Midas
Le jugement de Midas is a French comédie mêlée d'ariettes , in three acts by André Grétry first performed privately at the Palais-Royal, Paris on 28 March 1778. The libretto is by the Irish playwright Thomas Hales with additional contributions by Louis Anseaume...
(1778) and the domestic farce of L'amant jaloux
L'amant jaloux
L'amant jaloux, ou Les fausses apparences is a French comédie mêlée d'ariettes in three acts by André Grétry first performed at Versailles on 20 November 1778. The libretto is by the Irish playwright Thomas Hales with the verse passages provided by F.Levasseur...
(also 1778). His most famous work was the historical "rescue opera", Richard Coeur-de-lion
Richard Coeur-de-lion (opera)
Richard Coeur-de-lion is an opéra comique, described as a comédie mise en musique, by the Belgian composer André Grétry. was by Michel-Jean Sedaine. The work is generally recognised as Grétry's masterpiece and one of the most important French opéras comiques...
(1784), which achieved international popularity, reaching London in 1786 and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in 1797.
Between 1724 and 1762 the Opéra-Comique theatre was located at the Foire Saint Germain. In 1762 the company was merged with the Comédie-Italienne
Comédie-Italienne
Over time, there have been several buildings and several theatrical companies named the "Théâtre-Italien" or the "Comédie-Italienne" in Paris. Following the times, the theatre has shown both plays and operas...
and moved to the Hôtel de Bourgogne. In 1783 a new, larger home was created for it at the Théâtre Italien (later renamed the Salle Favart).
The Revolution and the 19th century
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
brought many changes to musical life in Paris. In 1793 the name of the Comédie-Italienne was changed to the Opéra-Comique, but it no longer had a monopoly on performing operas with spoken dialogue and faced serious rivalry from the Théâtre Feydeau, which also produced works in the opéra comique style. Opéra comique generally became more dramatic and less comic and began to show the influence of musical Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. The chief composers at the Opéra-Comique during the Revolutionary era were Étienne Méhul
Étienne Méhul
Etienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution." He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic".-Life:...
, Nicolas Dalayrac
Nicolas Dalayrac
Nicolas-Marie d'Alayrac, known as Nicolas Dalayrac , was a French composer, best known for his opéras-comiques.- Biography :...
, Rodolphe Kreutzer
Rodolphe Kreutzer
Rodolphe Kreutzer was a German violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas.-Biography:...
and Henri Montan Berton
Henri Montan Berton
Henri Montan Berton was a French composer, teacher, and writer, and the son of Pierre Montan Berton.-Career:...
. Those at the Feydeau included Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
, Pierre Gaveaux
Pierre Gaveaux
Pierre Gaveaux was a French operatic tenor and composer, notable for creating the role of Jason in Cherubini's Médée and for composing the first operatic version of the story that later found fame as Fidelio....
, Jean-François Le Sueur
Jean-François Le Sueur
Jean-François Le Sueur was a French composer, best known for his oratorios and operas.-Life:...
and François Devienne
François Devienne
François Devienne was a French composer and professor for flute at the Paris Conservatory.François Devienne was born in Joinville , as the youngest of fourteen children of a saddlemaker...
. The works of Méhul (for example Stratonice
Stratonice (opera)
Stratonice is a one-act opéra comique by Étienne Méhul to a libretto by François-Benoît Hoffman, first performed at the Théâtre Favart, Paris, on 3 May 1792...
, 1792; Ariodant
Ariodant
Ariodant is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Étienne Méhul first performed at the Théâtre Favart in Paris on 11 October 1799. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman is based on the same episode in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso that also inspired Handel's opera Ariodante...
, 1799), Cherubini (Lodoiska
Lodoïska
Lodoïska is an opera by Luigi Cherubini to a French libretto by Claude-François Fillette-Loraux after an episode from Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai’s novel, Les amours du chevalier de Faublas. It takes the form of a comédie héroïque in three acts, and was a founding work of rescue opera...
, 1791; Médée
Médée (Cherubini)
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini.The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée....
, 1797; Les deux journées
Les deux journées
Les deux journées, ou Le porteur d'eau is an opera in three acts by Luigi Cherubini with a libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly. It takes the form of an opéra comique, meaning not that the subject matter is humorous, but that the piece is a mixture of spoken dialogue and musical numbers...
, 1800) and Le Sueur (La caverne
La caverne
La caverne, ou Le repentir is an opera in three acts by the French composer Jean-François Le Sueur. It was first performed at the Théâtre Feydeau, Paris on 16 February 1793. The libretto, by Alphonse François "Paul" Palat-Dercy, is based on an episode from Lesage's novel Gil Blas...
, 1793) in particular show the influence of serious French opera, especially Gluck, and a willingness to take on previously taboo subjects (e.g. incest in Méhul's Mélidore et Phrosine
Mélidore et Phrosine
Mélidore et Phrosine is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. It takes the form of a drame lyrique in three acts. The libretto, by Antoine Vincent Arnault, is loosely based on the myth of Hero and Leander. The work was first performed at the Théâtre Favart, Paris on 6 May 1794...
, 1794; infanticide in Cherubini's famous Médée). Orchestration and harmony are more complex than in the music of the previous generation; attempts are made to reduce the amount of spoken dialogue; and unity is provided by techniques such as the "reminiscence motif" (recurring musical themes representing a character or idea).
In 1801 the Opéra-Comique and the Feydeau merged for financial reasons. The changing political climate - more stable under the rule of Napoleon - was reflected in musical fashion as comedy began to creep back into opéra-comique. The lighter new offerings of Boieldieu (such as Le calife de Bagdad
Le calife de Bagdad
Le calife de Bagdad is an opera comique in one act by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu with a libretto by Claude de Saint-Just . It was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Paris on 16 September 1800 and soon became highly popular throughout Europe. It was Boieldieu's first major...
, 1800) and Isouard
Nicolas Isouard
Nicolas Isouard was a Maltese composer.Isouard studied in Valletta with Francesco Azopardi, in Palermo with Giuseppe Amendola, and in Naples with Nicola Sala and Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi. From 1795 he was organist at St...
(Cendrillon
Cendrillon (Isouard)
Cendrillon is a French opera in three acts by the Maltese-born composer Nicolas Isouard. It takes the form of an opéra comique with spoken dialogue between the musical numbers, although its authors designated it an opéra série. The libretto, by Charles Guillaume Etienne, is based on Charles...
, 1810) were a great success. Parisian audiences of the time also loved Italian opera, visiting the Théâtre Italien to see opera buffa
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
and works in the newly fashionable bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
style, especially those by Rossini, whose fame was sweeping across Europe. Rossini's influence began to pervade French opéra comique. Its presence is felt in Boieldieu's greatest success, La dame blanche
La Dame blanche
La dame blanche is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no less than five of the works by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including his novels The Monastery, Guy Mannering, and The...
(1825) as well as later works by Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
(Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo (opera)
Fra Diavolo, ou L'hôtellerie de Terracine is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Daniel Auber, from a libretto by Auber's regular collaborator Eugène Scribe...
, 1830; Le domino noir
Le domino noir
Le domino noir is an opéra comique by the French composer Daniel Auber, first performed on 2 December 1837 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris. The libretto to the three-act piece is by Auber's usual collaborator, Eugène Scribe. It was one of Auber's most successful works,...
, 1837), Hérold
Herold
Herold is a brand of beer made in Herold Březnice Castle Brewery, a small brewery in Březnice, a small town 60 kilometers south of Prague, Czech Republic.Beer was first noted to have been commercially brewed here in 1506...
(Zampa
Zampa
Zampa, ou La fiancée de marbre is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold...
, 1831) and Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
(Le postillon de Longjumeau, 1836).
Sources
- The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera ed. Roger Parker (OUP, 1994)
- The Viking Opera Guide ed. Amanda Holden (Viking, 1993)
- John Warrack , Nicholas Temperley in The Oxford Companion to Music, ed. Alison Latham (Oxford University Press, 2002)