MUSICAL THEATREA HISTORYCHAPTER TWOCONTINENTAL 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 Parishttp://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 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 fromhis native Germany to study the cello in 1833. He was 14 years old.

To be as French as possible, he changed hisname from Jakob to Jacques and convertedto Catholicism.

His professional goal “was to create a newkind of musical entertainment that would offer more fun than grand opera whileretaining a high degree of musicalsophistication.

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 opera-bouffe became thelasting 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 threeFeatured the song “Oh, How I Loved the Military”

In the title role, Hortense Schneider -->enjoyed the greatest success of hercareer. The production was featuredas part of Napoleon III’s ExpositionUniverselle (1867) and was viewedby 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 popularsingspiele composer.

He turned to operetta in 1865The Beautiful Galatea OVERTURE

His work is based on the same source material as Shaw’s PYGMALION whichbecame 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

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

Today, it is the most popular work by Strauss.

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