Large-scale programming studies of French Revolutionary theatre confirm that the most frequently staged opera of the 1790s was not one of the politically charged, compositionally progressive works that have come to define the era for posterity, but rather a pastoral comedy from mid-century: Les deux chasseurs et la laitière (1763), with a score by Egidio Duni to a libretto by Louis Anseaume. This article draws upon both musical and archival evidence to establish an extended performance history of Les deux chasseurs, and a more nuanced explanation for its enduring hold on the French lyric stage. I consider the pragmatic, legal and aesthetic factors contributing to the comedy's widespread adaptability, including its cosmopolitan musical idiom, scenographic simplicity and ready familiarity amongst consumers of printed music. More broadly, I address the advantages and limitations of corpus-based analysis with respect to delineating the operatic canon. In late eighteenth-century Paris, observers were already beginning to identify a chasm between their theatre-going experiences and the reactions of critics: Was a true piece of ‘Revolutionary’ theatre one that was heralded as emblematic of its time, or one, like Les deux chasseurs, that was so frequently seen that it hardly elicited a mention in the printed record?
This article draws upon archival evidence to trace the development of opéra-comique—and its broader political import—in the final years of the ancien régime. It focuses in particular on the opening of the Salle Favart, the first new and custom-built theater for the Comédie-Italienne, in 1783. This change in venue attracted elite crowds to France's second lyric stage, solidifying a prominent rift between the generic status of opéra-comique and the social status of its audiences. The patronage of wealthy Parisians, in turn, enabled the company to augment its staging resources and present works on an increasingly expansive scale. On the eve of the Revolution, the theater's programming committee supported the production of operas on heroic, historical subjects. Not only did such patriotic tales inspire fantastical scenery and effects, but they also enhanced the prestige of opéra-comique, which came to challenge its tragic counterpart as a legitimate, and legitimately national, lyric form. An examination of Sargines (1788), by Nicolas-Marie Dalayrac and Jacques-Marie Boutet (known as Monvel), demonstrates how such “heroic” works played into disputes over the traditional limitations of the genre. It also underscores how the aesthetic we now associate with the turbulent 1790s was, in many cases, created out of materials developed in the previous decade, shedding light on the complex relationship between ancien-régime culture and revolutionary art.
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