Scylla et Glaucus:A case study

Abstract

The policies of centralisation pursued by Louis XIV and his ministers affected most aspects of French life and culture. From 1645 opera had been imported from Italy by Louis' minister Cardinal Mazarin, originally out of political motives. When it had become ‘naturalised’, assuming its characteristic French guise under the despotic direction of Lully's Académie Royale de Musique, it continued to serve political purposes. In return for a monopoly on theatre music, Lully saw to it that opera served not only as entertainment for the nobility and bourgeoisie, but also as propaganda for the state and for the divine right of the King. An incidental effect of these policies was that the number of French operas produced was small compared to the number in Italy. This was due to the monopoly; to the centralisation, which meant that with few exceptions ‘French’ opera really meant ‘Parisian’ opera; and to the lavishness of the productions, which made frequent changes of repertory impractical even with subsidies. Each première was an event of note, chronicled in official and unofficial sources – the archival documents, mémoires, correspondence, periodicals, pamphlets and books of the day. This profusion of documentation frequently makes possible a degree of precision about the history of early French opera that can rarely be attained for other national schools.

‘My father was a poor Parisian musician’: A Memoir (1756) concerning Rameau, Handel's Library and Sallé

“…Its première had been on 4 October 1746, and its engraved score was issued just before that, as Neal Zaslaw's masterly article has shown. 25 In consequence, the author may have seen the score in London during late 1746 or in 1747. It is at least possible that he first entered Handel's house before the score of Scylla arrived, since he stresses his status as a welcomed visitor, and condenses the account deliberately.…”