MUSICAL THEATRE
A HISTORY
CHAPTER TWO
CONTINENTAL OPERA (1840-1900)
“TYPICAL OF FRANCE”
According to the French, everything of value
in western culture originated in France
• What is the truth? Drama and cuisine were first cultivated in
Greece
• Opera was invented in Italy
• Electric light was developed in the United States
BUT
What we know of the modern musical was born and raised in
Paris, but its originator was not born a Frenchman
History of Paris
http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Paris/Paris_history.shtml
• Paris is more than 2,000 years old. Gauls of the Parisii tribe settled there between 250
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and 200 BC and founded a fishing village on an island in the river that is the present-day
Ile de la Cité -- the center around which Paris developed.
Known as Lutetia (Lutece) in ancient times, Paris was conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 BC,
and existed as a regional center under the Romans and in the early Middle Ages.
In 987, HUGH CAPET, Count of Paris, became king of France, and under his successors, the
CAPETIANS, the city's position as the nation's capital became established.
The people of Paris first declared themselves an independent commune under Etienne
Marcel in 1355-58. The storming of the Bastille in 1789 was the first of a series of key
actions by the Parisian people during the FRENCH REVOLUTION. Paris also played a major
role in the revolutions of 1830 and 1848.
In 1871, during the FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR , the city was besieged for four months until
France surrendered. After German troops withdrew, French radicals briefly established
the COMMUNE OF PARIS.
During World War I the Germans were prevented from reaching Paris, but they occupied
the city during World War II from 1940 to 1944. Paris was again the scene of violence
during the student riots of 1968.
Paris today maintains its importance, character, and charm, though its appearance is
being transformed by the ambitious building program carried out under the presidency of
François Mitterrand that included the La Défense arch, the Bastille Opéra and the
renovation of the Louvre
Paris today
Theatre thrived in Paris by the 1600s
• The patronage of Louis XIV to Moliere
• The operas of Lully
• When Louix XVI was overthrown in the French Revolution and
the many upheavals that followed, Paris remained the center of
arts, especially theatre. Napoleon was crowned Emperor in
1804
• The Revolution of 1848 forced formation of new French
Republic
• Napoleon's son Louis founded the Second Empire as Napoleon
III and instituted numerous reforms…under his prosperous
reign, theatre, opera and the arts thrived
Offenbach: “Entrez, Messieurs, Mesdames!”
Jacques Offenbach came to Paris from
his native Germany to study the cello in 1833.
He was 14 years old.
To be as French as possible, he changed his
name from Jakob to Jacques and converted
to Catholicism.
His professional goal “was to create a new
kind of musical entertainment that would
offer more fun than grand opera while
retaining a high degree of musical
sophistication.
Adolphe Adam (1803-1856)
• Attempted similar reforms in the ballet GISELLE
• The light opera PIERRE ET CATHERINE (1829)
• Opened the Opera National in 1847 with DON QUICHOTTE ET
SANCHO PANZA (1847) by Florimonde Ronger (Herve)
• Financial pressures closed Opera National in 1848
Exposition Universelle (1855)
Not the one which built the Eiffel Tower, that was in 1889
• Presented by Napoleon III to show off the glory of France
• Offenbach left the Comedie-Francaise where he served as
music director to found a small theatre just of the Champ
Elysees called The Theatre des Bouffes Parisiens
• First program in the small venue was presented July 5, 1855
• Four new works were presented
• Prologue: Entrez, Messieurs, Mesdames!
• Operetta Une Nuit Blanche (A Sleepless Night)
• Pantomime: Arlequin Barbier (with melodies from Rossini)
• Bouffonerie musicale: Les Deux Aveugles (The Two Blind Men)
• The final piece was the hit of the evening and is often viewed
as the origins of the operetta (opera-bouffe)
Ludovic Halevy (1834-1908)
• Wrote the libretto for Entrez, Messieurs, Mesdames! and
became the principal librettist for man of Offenbach’s works
The new operabouffe became the
lasting legacy of
the Exposition.
After the Exposition, Offenbach moved to a larger house
which was now called the Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens
Offenbach’s company toured the continent
in 1857
• Held a contest for operettas written in the new style which
established Georges Bizet
and
Charles Lecocq
Offenbach produced his own works
• In order to raise revenue, he produced his first 2-act operetta in
1858
• Orpheus in the Underworld would run for 228 performances
• And introduced his “greatest hit” The Can-can
ORPHEUS marked the beginning of
Offenbach’s golden years
• Beginning in 1864, playwright Henri Meilhac (below) teamed
up with Hervey as collaborators and librettists. Offenbach
referred to them as “Mel” and “Hal.”
Famous credits of the period…
La Belle Helene (1864) about Helen of Troy
La Vie Parisienne (1866)
La Perichole (1868)
Les Brigands (1869)
La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (1867)
Probably the most famous collaboration of the three
Featured the song “Oh, How I Loved the Military”
In the title role, Hortense Schneider -->
enjoyed the greatest success of her
career. The production was featured
as part of Napoleon III’s Exposition
Universelle (1867) and was viewed
by the crowned heads of Europe.
Offenbach’s fortunes changed after the start
of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870s
• His golden years were behind him, but he continued to produce
new works
• The Carrot King (1872)
• A Trip to the Moon (1875)
• The Old Hen (1875)
• Madame Favart (1878)
• The Drum Major’s Daughter (1879)
• He died in 1880 while at work on THE TALES OF HOFFMAN, his
most widely performed work
• It premiered at the Paris Opera in 1881 and has been regularly
revived since
Charles Lelocq (1832-1918)
• Winner of the operetta contest with Bizet many years earlier,
Lelocq had a successful career writing operetta. His most
famous work was La Fille de Madame Angot (1872)
(The Daughter of Mrs. Angot)
Offenbach and Lecocq influenced the
musical stages of Vienna
In Imperial Vienna, waltz was “king” but
singspiele became popular
• Best known examples of the genre are by Mozart
• Abduction of the Seraglio (1782)
• The Magic Flute (1791)
Julie Taymor’s THE MAGIC FLUTE at the Met, 2008
In singspiele, music and singing are more
important than plot and character
Franz von Suppe (1819-1895) was Austria’s most popular
singspiele composer.
He turned to operetta in 1865
The Beautiful Galatea OVERTURE
His work is based on the
same source material as
Shaw’s PYGMALION which
became MY FAIR LADY
Johann Strauss II (1825-1899)
• Began writing operettas in 1871 encouraged by Offenbach
• After a string of near-misses and flops, he found a librettist
named Franz Genee and they transformed a play by “Hal and
Mel” in Die Fliedermaus (THE BAT) in 1874.
Genee
Strauss
Die Fliedermaus was not popular at first
and closed after just 16 performances
Today, it is the
most popular
work by Strauss.
Johann Strauss jr. - Die Fledermaus - "Klange der Heimat" (Kiri Te Kanawa as
Rosalinde). Royal Opera House Covent Garden 1984. Hildegarde Heichele as
Adele, Herman Prey as Eisenstein, Kiri Te Kanawa as Rosalinde, Doris Soffel as
Prince Orlofsky. Placido Domingo conductor
Viennese operetta grew in popularity
• Through the works of Carl Millocker (1842-99) and Carl Zeller
(1842-1898)
• By the end of the 19th century most believed the vogue for
Viennese operetta had passed until…
• THE MERRY WIDOW by Franz Lehar (1905)
By that time, a new city had emerged as the
center of musical theatre…
…New York City