Description
Opéra de salon emerged in the early 1850s out of a much longer tradition of théâtre de société: the cultivation of performing plays in aristocratic town houses and châteaux which continued into the Second Empire of the 1850s and 1860s, and beyond. It consisted of a one-act opérette with between six and nine musical compositions separated by spoken dialogue that carried the action in the same way as opéra-comique or opérette itself. Opéra de salon was separated from opérette and related genres by its performance context: never shared with the regulated theatre, opéra de salon was cultivated in domestic living spaces that were repurposed in ways that ranged from simply pushing back the furniture to building a fully-fledged theatre in one's own home. Opéra de salon furthermore found its way into the concert culture hosted by Parisian piano manufacturers Herz, Erard, Pleyel, and others.In Opéra de salon: Parisian Societies and Salons in the Second Empire, author Mark Everist brings to light a genre and a set of cultural practices that have long been obscured. Approximately 130 opéras de salon were composed and performed up to ca. 1875, and, as Everist demonstrates, they represent a significant generic trajectory in the history of nineteenth century music and theatre. Produced by major composers and librettists of the day, these works play into questions of gender, age, and urban topography in ways unlike other musical and theatrical genres of the day. Everist's focus is on the salon--the domestic, the private--but he also shows how opéra de salon moves effortlessly between intimate familial space, the more public salon, to the public and largely commercial concert hall in ways that prompt reflection on the status of all these critical categories. Ultimately, Everist challenges the hermetic discipline of 'opera studies' by opening up massive repertories that are still unknown, and by developing critical practices that go beyond traditional categories of theatres, institutions, consumers, and creators.
Table of Contents
IllustrationsMusic ExamplesTablesAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Opéra de salonOpéra - SalonOpéra de salonPatterns of Publication2. Performers and the Improvised StageCasts, Scoring and InstrumentationVocal ArtistsThe Improvised Stage3. Performance and Places: The Bourgeois and the AristocratSpaces and PatronsSpaces and Patrons 1: The Medical ProfessionSpaces and Patrons 2: Entrepreneurs and the Haute-BourgeoisieSpaces and Patrons 3: Government and Aristocracy4. Performance and Places: Music and LettersSpaces and Patrons 4: Artists and Men of LettersSpaces and Patrons 5: Professional MusiciansSpaces and Patrons 6: Public Spaces5. Contexts and cultivationContexts for creationSalons - ConcertsThéâtre de sociétéCharadeProverbeOpéra de salon and the Regulated TheatreSalon, Song and Séance6. Performance in the ParloirWomen, the Parloir and Opéra de salonWomen Composers and Librettists7. Locating Opéra de salonTime and SpaceSpatialitéGeolocationMultiplicities of PowerOpéra de salon in the Provinces and AbroadConclusionAppendixBibliographyIndex
