carnival in venice or protest in paris
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
1/39
Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris? Louis XIV and the Politics of Subversion at the ParisOpraAuthor(s): Georgia CowartSource: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Summer 2001), pp. 265-302Published by: University of California Presson behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jams.2001.54.2.265.
Accessed: 01/10/2014 15:33
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
University of California PressandAmerican Musicological Societyare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access toJournal of the American Musicological Society.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=amusochttp://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jams.2001.54.2.265?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jams.2001.54.2.265?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=amusochttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
2/39
Carnival
in
Venice
or
Protest in
Paris?
Louis
XIV
and
the
Politics
of
Subversion
at the Paris
Opera
GEORGIA COWART
_B
y
the
end
of
the seventeenth
entury
he
absolutist
mage
constructed
to glorifyLouis XIV was losing its credibility.Since the earlyyearsof
his
long personal
reign (1661-1715),
this fictional
identity
had
cast
the
king
in
the roles of
gods
and
heroes,
flattered
him
as
supreme
ruler
and
military
commander,
and
celebrated
him
as the ultimate source
of
courtly
pleasure.
Between 1685
and Louis's
death,
however,
a
series
of
devastating
military
defeats,
an
unprecedented
deficit,
crippling
taxation,
and the loss
of
over a million
inhabitantsto
emigration
and death
by
starvation
belied the
claims of
royal
propaganda.
Probably
because of these
conditions,
along
with
his
secret
marriage
o
the
pious
Mme. de
Maintenon,
Louis
spent
his old
age
in religious devotion and relativeseclusion, rarelyattending the balls, mas-
querades,
and other
divertissementshat
maintainedthe
appearance
of
royal
patronage.
Freed from
Louis's
watchful
eye,
many
members of the
court re-
turned
to
Paris,
where
they
attended
public
spectacles
rivaling
those of
Versailles.Other
courtiers,
ollowing
the
king
in
what became a
fashion
for
de-
votion,
joined
with
clerics
and
lay
writers o
form
a
parti
des
devots
denouncing
contemporary
moral
standards.
The
league
of
the
monarchy
and the
devout
party directly
threatened
Parisian
heatrical
ife,
which, because of its libertine
promiscuity,
n
the
1690s
became the focus of a vituperativepamphletattackknown as the querelles es
theatres.
Despite
official threats and
actual
persecution,
theaters
continued to
Research for
this article
was made
possible
by grants
from the
American Council
of Learned
Societies
and
the National
Endowment for
the
Humanities,
and
by
release
time
provided
by
the
Provost's
Office
at the
University
of
South Carolina.
am also
grateful
o
my anonymous
readers
for
this
Journal,
to
George
J.
Buelow,
Kathleen
Hansell,
Jann
Pasler,
Buford
Norman,
Donald
J.
Greiner,
Rebecca
Oettinger,
and
Daniel
Beller-McKennaor their
comments in
response
to
earlier
versions,
to Rose
Pruiksma or her
response
to
questions
concerning
the
balletde
cour,
o
Robert
Holzer for
assistancewith
Italian
translations,
o
John
Powell for
editing
the musical
examples,
and
to music librarians enniferOttervik at the Universityof South CarolinaMusic Libraryand
Stephen
Toombs
at the
Case
Western
Reserve
University
KulasMusic
Library.
would
especially
like to
thank
Mary
Davis
for
commenting
on a
succession of
ideas and
revisionsover a
period
of
years.
Unless
otherwise
noted,
translations re
my
own.
[Journal
oftheAmericap
Musicological
ociety
001,
vol.
54,
no.
2]
?
2001
by
the American
Musicological ociety.
All
rights
eserved.
003-0139/01/5402-0002$2.00
University of California Press
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
3/39
266 Journal
of the
American
Musicological
Society
offer fare
ncreasingly
ttuned to the
tastes
of a
developing public sphere.
Even
the
Academie
Royale
de
Musique, formerly
dentified with
royal
encomium,
began
to
celebrate nstead the
nobility
and
upper
bourgeoisie
that
populated
its foyers and loges.1 The genre that most clearlyreflected this shift in taste
was
the
opera-ballet
f Andre
Campra (1660-1744)
and
the
choreographer
Guillaume-Louis
Pecour,
which
reconfigured
he
conventions of
monarchical
praise
n
the old ballet de
cour
to
reflect the
identity
of
a new social
elite.
Like
the
paintings
of
Watteauwith which
they
have
been
compared,2
Campra's
bal-
lets,3
eschewing
the
heavy
grandeur
and
magnificence
associatedwith
Louis
XIV,
heraldedthe
qualities
of
lightheartedness,brilliance,
and
galanterie
that
would
characterize
he
Regency period
(1715-21).
An
iconoclastic
"modernism"
may
be
clearly
seen in
Campra's
wo
full-
length balletson the theme of Venetiancarnival,LeCarnaval deVenise1699,
libretto
by
Fran$ois
Regnard)
and Les Fetes
venitiennes
(1710,
libretto
by
Antoine
Danchet).4
These
works,
punctuating
the
final
period
of
Louis
XIV's
reign, sparkle
ike
brightjewels
against
the
lackluster ultural
etting
of
his late
years.
Like
Campra's
other
ballets,
Le
Carnaval de
Venise nd LesFetes
veni-
tiennes
represent
a
sophisticated
blend
of
elements taken
from
the
ballet de
cour,
he
tragedie
en
musique,
nd the
comedie-ballet.
nother
seldom
acknowl-
edged
source
for
Campra's
ballets is
the
Comedie-Italienne,
the
outlawed
1.
On
French
opera
audiences
in
the
late
seventeenth and
early eighteenth centuries,
see
Ariane
Ducrot,
"Les
Representations
de
l'Academie
de
musique
a
Paris
au
temps
de
Louis XIV
(1671-1715),"
Recherches
ur la
musique
ranfaise
classique
10
(1970):
19-55; Jerome
de la
Gorce,
"Opera
et
son
public
au
temps
de
Louis
XIV,"
in
The Garland
Libraryof
the
History
of
Western
Music,
ed. Ellen
Rosand
(New
York:
Garland,
1985), 11:27-46;
John
Lough,
Paris
Theatre
Audiences
n the
Seventeenth nd
Eighteenth
Centuries
London:
Oxford
University
Press,
1957);
Paul
Lacroix,
The
Eighteenth
Century:
ts
Institutions,
Customs,
nd
Costumes
New
York:
Ungar,
1963);
Pierre
Melese,
Le
Theadtret
le
public
a
Paris sous
Louis
XIV,
1659-1715
(Paris,
1934;
reprint,
Geneva:
Slatkine,
1976);
and
(for
a
slightly
ater
period)
James
H.
Johnson,
Listen-
ing
in
Paris:
A
Cultural
History
Berkeley
and Los
Angeles:
University
of
California
Press,
1995).
2. Louis de Cahusacwas the first to draw this comparison, n La Danseancienne et moderne
ou
Traiti
historique
e la
danse
The
Hague:
J. Neaulme,
1754),
2:169-80.
3. In
"The
French
Opera-Ballet
n
the
EarlyEighteenth
Century:
Problemsof
Definition
and
Classification"
this
Journal
18
[1965]:
197-206),
James
Anthony
makes a
persuasive
case for
defining
the
opera-ballet y
its lack
of
continuous
dramatic
action.
As he
acknowledges,
however,
the term
was
rarely
used
in the
eighteenth
century,
when
ballet
was the
standard
designation
for
operatic
works
based on
the
dance,
whether
or not
their
action was
continuous.
As the
works un-
der
discussion
here
differ
n
their
use
of
continuous
action,
yet
hold
important
similarities
n
other
ways germane
to the
investigation,
I will
follow
eighteenth-century
practice
n
designating
them
simply by
the
term ballet.
I will
reserve
opera-ballet
o
refer
generally
o
ballets
produced
at
the
Paris
Opera,
as
opposed
to
works
produced
at
court.
4. The originalscoreswere published by Ballard n 1699 and 1710 respectively.A facsimile
reprint
of
Le
Carnaval de
Venise,
dited
by
James
Anthony
(Stuyvesant,
N.Y.:
Pendragon
Press,
1989),
includes
a
useful
introduction and
lavish
llustrations.
Campra
had
already
ntroduced
an
Italian
setting
in the
entry
"L'Italie" n
his
first
opera-ballet,
'Europegalante
1697),
and would
do
so
again
in
"La
Serenade
venitienne,"
an
original
entree
added to his
pastiche
entitled Les
Fragments
de
Lully
of
1702.
Other
related
works
include
Andre-Cardinal
Destouches's
Le
Carnaval
et la
Folie
1704)
and
Michel
de
La
Barre'sLa
Vinitienne
1705).
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
4/39
Louis XIV
and Subversion
at the Paris
Opera
267
Parisian heater
of the commedia
dell'arte,5
whose influence
may
be seen
in
the
comic
plot
structures, characters,masks,
costumes,
and
Italianate
music
of
these two
works.
Though
the Italian
players
had
enjoyed
state
support
since
their arrivaln Franceat
midcentury,
n the 1690s
they
hadmet with
royal
dis-
approval
or
their
subversive atireand in
1697 were
banished
by
order of
the
king.6
Their
exile, however,
only
served
to
intensify
the
French
infatuation
with
the commediadell'arte.The characters nd costumes of
Arlequin,
Scara-
mouche, Polichinelle, Pierrot, Isabelle,
Leandre,
and Columbine were
em-
braced
by
French
players
of the
thedtre
de
la
foire
and
by
the
acrobats,
tightrope
walkers,
and charlatanswho entertained
pedestrians
n the sidewalks
of the Pont Neuf
and
in
other
public
venues.7
They
were
also
appropriated y
members
of
an
upper-class
elite
who,
seeking
to distance themselves from
identificationwith
the
crown,
not
only
attended these
popular performances
but also
staged
their own
costume balls and amateur
plays
d IPitalienne.8
With
Campra's
LeCarnaval
de
Venise,
roduced
two
years
after he
expulsion
of
the
Italian
comedians,
the
commediadell'arteentered the
Opera,9bringing
with it
a mode of
political
satireboth
fashionableand
dangerous.
5.
On
the
commedia
ell'arte,
ee
AUardyce
icoll,
TheWorld
fHarlequin:
Critical
tudy
of
the
Commediadell'arte
(New
York:
CambridgeUniversity
Press,
1963);
Roberto
Tessari,
La
commedia
dellarte
nel
seicento
Florence:
L. S.
Olschki,
1969);
and
Nino
Pirrotta,
"Commedia
dell'arte ndOpera,"n hisMusic ndCulturen ItalyromtheMiddleAges otheBaroque:
Collection
of Essays Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press,
1984),
343-60. On the
Parisian
Comedie-Italienne,
see
Virginia
Scott,
The Commedia
dell'arte n
Paris,
1644-1697
(Charlottes-
ville:
University
Press of
Virginia, 1990);
and
Gustave
Attinger,
L'Eprit
de la
commediadell'arte
dans e
theitrefranfais
(Paris:
Librairie
heatrale,
1950).
6. In
1689 an actor from
the
company
had
been banished
for
expressing
his
disapproval
f
the
king's politics.
In
1695 a
prominent
officerof
the law was
depicted
as a
common
criminal,
and
the Italians
eceivedan official
reprimand.
The
end came
after he Italians'
currilous
reatment
of
a character
bearing
uncomfortable
similarities o the
prudish
Mme. de Maintenon.
Shortly
there-
after,
Louis XIVs
lieutenant-general
of
police appeared
n
person
at the
Comedie-Italienne
to
place
locks on
the doors
and to
post
a
lettrede
cachet
xpelling
the
troupe.
7. Robert
sherwood,
arce nd
Fantasy:
opular
ntertainmentn
Eighteenth-Century
aris
(New
Yorkand Oxford:
Oxford
University
Press,
1986),
3-21.
The
theatre
de
lafoire
had
begun
as
farce
nterspersed
with
tightrope
or
acrobatic
acts at
the fairsof
Paris,
most
notably
the Foire
Saint-Laurentand the
Foire
Saint-Germain.After the
expulsion
of
the
Comedie-Italienne
in
1697,
the French
players
of the
thedtrede la
foire
took over their
repertory.
The
songs
and
opera
parodies
inherited
from the
Italians'
repertory
were
to
become the basis of the
later
opera-
comique,
irst
designated
as such in
1715. On
the music
of the
thedtredela
foire,
see Nicole
Wild,
"Aspects
de la
musique
sous la
Regence.
Les
Foires:
Naissance de
l'opera-comique,"
Recherches
sur la
musiquefranfaise
classique
5
(1965):
129-41;
and on
the
repertory
of
the
Comedie-
Italienne,
as
it
was
reestablished
n
the
Regency period,
see
Clarence D.
Brenner,
The
Theatre
Italien:
Its
Repertory,
1716-1793
(Berkeley
and Los
Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress,
1961).
8.
On the
Comedie-Italienneand
cultural
politics,
see Thomas E.
Crow,
Painters
and
Public
Life
in
Eighteenth-Century
aris
(New
Haven
and London: Yale
University
Press,
1985),
49-55;
and
Julie
Anne
Plax,
Watteau
nd
the
Cultural olitics
f
Eighteenth-Century
rance
Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
2000),
40-52.
9.
Babet-la-chanteuse
Elisabeth
Danneret),
the
cantarina of the
Comedie-Italienne,
had
already
ntered
the
Opera following
the
banishmentof
the
troupe.
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
5/39
268
Journal
of
the
American
Musicological
Society
This
Italian
strain
may
be seen as
part
of a more
general
system
of
satire
ar-
geting
Louis
XIV
in the late
years
of his
reign.
Revisionist
cholarship
ver
the
past
two
decades
has called
attention
to an
undergroundpamphlet
literature,
characterizedby blatantridiculeand even obscenity, attackingLouis XIV,his
family,
and
government
ministers.10
second,
subtler orm of
satire,
nvolving
the
manipulation
of
mythology
and
allegory
for
the
purpose
of
inscribing
an
undercover,
anti-absolutistdiscourse
within
the boundariesof
officially
sanc-
tioned
genres,
has
received
less
scholarly
attention.'1
As
I
will
demonstrate,
this
latter
type
infiltrated
not
only
the Comedie-Italienne
and the
Comedie-
Franqaise
as
well
as the more
blatant theatre
de la
foire),
but after
the
death
of
Jean-BaptisteLully
in
1687,
the
Academie
Royale
de
Musique (the
Paris
Opera)
as well.
The
Opera,
known as the
temple
d'amouror the
temple
de
la
volupte,hadalwaysbeen associatedwith a notorietysomewhatat odds with its
official
status.
This
reputation,
which
intensifiedafter
Lully's
death and
blos-
somed
into
outright
scandal
aroundthe turn of
the
century,
has never been
in-
vestigated
n
connection
with
the
cultural
politics
of
ancien-regime
France.As
I
will
suggest,
however,
the
social libertinism
of the
Operamay
be seen as
a
framefor a
more
serious
political
ibertinism,
oreshadowing
he
free
thought
of the
Enlightenment,
which
already
at the
turn
of
the
eighteenth
century
stood in
opposition
to Louis
XtV's
absolutist
politics.12
The
genre
of
the
opera-ballet
tself
provided
a
powerful
vehicle
for
the
un-
derminingof Louis XIV'sabsolutist mage because it could draw on a system
10.
Despite
stringent governmental
censorship,
this
literature lowed
into
France from the
free
presses
of
England,
Holland,
and
Germany,
or
circulated
n
manuscript
within
France
tself.
See
Peter
Burke,
The
Fabrication
of
Louis
XIV
(New
Haven and
London:
Yale
University
Press,
1992),
135-50;
and Nicole
Ferrier-Caveriviere,
'Image
de
Louis
XIV dans la
littiraturefranfaise
de
1660 a
1715
(Paris:
Presses
Universitaires e
France,
1981),
306-50. A
thriving
underground
music
culture
produced
satiresof
Louis XIV
and
his
family,
ministers,
and
court,
primarily
n the
form
of
subversive
hansons,
but
also
through
erotic
parodies
of
Lully's
tragedie
en
musique;
or
the
latter,
see
Catherine
Gordon-Seifert,
"Heroism
Undone in
the
Erotic Ms.
Parodies
of
Jean-
BaptisteLully's Tragedies n Musique," n Music,Sensation,and Sensuality, d. Linda Austern
(New
York:
Garland,
orthcoming).
11.
It is
briefly
reated in
Jean-Pierre
Neraudau,
L'Olympe
du
Roi-Soleil:
Mythologie
t idiolo-
gie royale
au
Grand
Siecle
Paris:
Societe
d'Edition
"Les
Belles
Lettres,"
1986);
Marc
Fumaroli,
Le
Poete
et le
roi:
Jean
de
La
Fontaine
en son
siecle
Paris:
Editions
de
Fallois,
1997);
and
Anne L.
Birberick,
Reading
Undercover:
udience and
Authority
n
Jean
de
La Fontaine
(Lewisburg,
Pa.:
Bucknell
University
Press;
London:
Associated
University
Presses,
1998).
12.
In
general,
the
term
libertinage
efers
o a
rebellion
against
societal
norms either
through
personal
manners
or
through philosophical
and
political
free
thought.
Though by
no
means all
libertinsde
moeurs
libertines
n
the
sense
used
today)
were also
libertins
d'esprits freethinkers),
the
ideals of
personal
and
political
reedom
often
went
hand in
hand. On
various
aspects
of
liber-
tinism in the seventeenthandeighteenth centuries,see Joan
Dejean,
Libertine
Strategies:
reedom
and
the
Novel
in
Seventeenth-Century
rance
(Columbus:
Ohio
State
University
Press,
1981);
Fran9ois
Moureau and
Alain-Marc
Rieu,
eds.,
trosphilosophe:
iscours
ibertins
des
umieres
Paris:
Honore
Champion,
1984);
Rene
Pintard,
Le
Libertinage rudit dans
la
premiere
moitii
du XVIIe
siecle
(Geneva: Slatkine,
1983);
Antoine
Adam,
Les
Libertinesau
XVIIe
siecle
(Paris: Buchet/
Chastel,
1964);
and F.
T.
Perrens,
Les
Libertinsen
France
au
XVIIe siicle
(Paris:
Leon
Chailley,
1896;
reprint,
New
York:
Burt
Franklin,
1973).
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
6/39
Louis XIV and Subversionat the Paris
Opera
269
of
representation
hat
had
traditionally
inked Louis
XIV
and
members
of
the
court
to their
dancing
roles in
the ballet
de cour.
Guided
by
the
versde
person-
nage,
lines of
poetry connecting
the
stage personae
of these noble
dancers
to the actualroles
they played
in court life,
Campra
and his librettistscould
reverse
or otherwise undermine the associationof Louis XIV
with
the
deities
and
heroes of
royalpropaganda,many
of whom had firstbeen
developed
in
the
ballet
de cour.The exoticism
that had
always
characterized he
ballet
could
also be turned to
political
use.
In
fact,
the
practice
of
setting incendiarypoli-
tical
critiques
in
seemingly
innocent,
exotic climes had become a
common
literary
ploy
by
the late
1600s.
Campra's
Le
Carnaval
de
Venise
nd
Les
Fetes
venitiennes
ollow in the
wake of
a
series of
utopian
novels that
use
fictional,
exotic
settings
to set out idealized
political
scenarios
containing implicit
cri-
tiques
of Louis XIV's France.13As a
corollary
o the italianismeof their
plots,
Campra's
musical
deployment
of a
florid,
Italianatediscourse
of
subversion
may
also
be
seen
as a direct
challenge
to the vaunted
simplicity
and
purity
of
a French
discourse
of absolutism.This
essay
will
examine the
ways
in which
Campra
uses the
musical
styles,
comic
plots,
and satirical
strategies
of the
Comedie-Italienneas a mask for the
entertainmentsof
a
subversive
Parisian
publicsphere.
Further,
t will
explore
the
ways
in
which
his
balletsdeconstruct
Louis XIV's official
image
through
a
literary
web of
allusion,
satire,
and
par-
ody;
through
a
musical talianisme
undermining
he French
anguage
of
abso-
lutism;
and
through
the
thematic
celebration
of
a new
public
audience as the
subversiveheir to
the
royalprerogative
of
pleasure.
Campra,
Commedia
dell'arte,
and the
Opera-Ballet
The
absorption
of
the
characters,
onventions,
and
music of the
Comedie-
Italienne
into the
opera-ballet ndoubtedly
originated
n
Campra's
choice of
that
theater'smost
famous
playwright,
Jean-Francois
Regnard,
as
librettist or
Le Carnaval de Venisen 1699. At the hands of Regnardand his colleagues,
the
Comedie-Italiennehad
by
the
1690s
become an even
more
stylized
and
verbally
elite
entertainment
than its Italian
counterpart,
while
retaining
the
character
ypes,
pranks,
machines,
and
costumes for
which it had
always
been
famous.
Written
mostly
in
French,
the
late
plays
of the Italian
roupe
retained
the Italian
anguagemainly
for
improvised
scenes based on
physical
tunts,
for
the
flowery
Petrarchan
anguage
of the
lovers,
and for the
singing
scenes of
the
divertissements. hese
divertissements,
sually
at the
ends of
acts,
include
13.
During
the
reign
of
Louis XIV an
unprecedented
number of
utopian
novels were
pro-
duced,
most of them as
a form of
encoded
politicalprotest.
Beginning
with
the
works of
the liber-
tine writer
Cyrano
de
Bergerac,
their
portraits
of ideal
societies,
like
that of
Thomas More's
original
Utopia,
often
veiled satirical
ocial
critiques.
See
Dejean,
Libertine
Strategies;
Robert C.
Elliott,
The
Shapeof
Utopia:
Studies
n a
Literary
Genre
(Chicago
and
London:
University
of
Chicago
Press,
1970);
Lise
Leibacher-Ouvrard,
ibertinage
et
utopies
ous
e
regne
de
Louis
XIV
(Geneva:Droz,
1989);
and
Myriam
Yardeni,
Utopie
et
revolte
ousLouis
XIV(Paris:
A.-G.
Nizet,
1980).
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
7/39
270 Journal
of the American
Musicological
Society
situations
ndirectly
elated o the
action,
such as
serenades,balls,
or even
plays
(and occasionally
operas)
within
plays.
Regnard,
a
musician
as well
as a
play-
wright,
created
a
model
emphasizing
hese
divertissementsnd
foreshadowing
the opera-comique.n his laterworks for the Comedie-Italienne,a slenderplot
supportsspectacular
ongs,
dances,
choruses,
rope
dances,
gymnastic
tricks,
and machine effects. The
music for
these
productions
consisted of French
popular songs
and Italianda
capo
arias.
The
arias,
among
the earliestknown
examples
of the
genre
in
France,
exhibit the
high
quality
of
contemporary
Italian
operas
or
cantatas,
rom
which
they may
have
been
directly
aken.14
The
thematic
use
of
carnival n
Campra's
ballets
allows
a concentrationof
Italian conventions never before
seen on the French
operatic
stage.
Isabelle
and
Leandre,
he
well-known lovers
(innamorati,
or
in
French,
amoureux)
of
the Comedie-Italienne,serve as protagonistsin both works, while the bur-
lesque
characters
Arlequin,
Pantalon,
le
docteur,
Scaramouche,
Polichinelle,
and Pierrot
appear,
mostly
in
dancing
roles,
in
several
entrees f LesFetesveni-
tiennes.15
(A
dancer of the
Opera,
costumed as
Scaramouche,
may
be
seen in
Fig.
1.)
Without
exception,
the
plots,
like those of
the
Italians,
revolve
around
pairs
of
sighing
lovers,
love
triangles,
masks,
disguises,
clever
escapes
from
aged guardians
and
tutors,
and
divertissements
l'italienne.
In
addition,
the
music of
Campra's
ballets,
clearlyalluding
to
the
italianisme
of
the
Comedie-
Italienne,
may
be
seen as the
primaryentry point
of
the
da
capo
aria
and
can-
tata into Frenchopera.16
Although
the
musical
influence of
the Comedie-Italienne awaits further
study,
a
preliminary urvey
of
the musical
appendices
o the
Gherardi
collec-
tion
suggests
that the
blossoming
of
a
spectacular
talianisme
in
Campra's
works
owes much
to the
Italian
players
and their music.17Two
important
14.
The
primary
ource for
the
musical
repertory
of the
Comedie-Italienne
was a collection
of
pieces
assembled
by
Evaristo
Gherardi,
a
member of
the
troupe,
in
the late
years
of
the seven-
teenth
century.
Consisting
of
fifty-five
plays
with
musical
supplementscontaining
French
songs
and Italianarias, t was firstpublishedin Paris n 1694, before the influx of Italiancantatasand
sonatas,
and
undoubtedly
served,
along
with
the
stage performances
of the
troupe,
to
introduce
the new
Italian
tyle
to
France.
15.
They
also
appear,
as
statues,
n
the
prologue
of La
Barre'sLa
Venitienne
of
1705,
where
in a
symbolic
gesture
they
are
brought
to life
by
Momus,
the
god
of
satire.
16.
Campraconsistently
follows the
plays
of the
Comedie-Italienne,
as
well
as
the musical
style
of its
da
capo
arias,
n
reverting
to
italianisme
for lovers'
declarationsand
serenades.
The
Italian
style
is
also
associated with
exoticism,
especially
n those
female
roles,
such
as a
gypsy
woman,
derived from
the
cantarina of
the
Comedie-Italienne.
The
complexity
of the
Italianate
divertissementsn
Les
Fites
venitiennesof
1710
reflects the resultsof the
flowering
of the Italian
style
through
the
first
decade of
the
century
in
France,
when
Italian sonatas and
cantatas
had
become the rage. In fact, the male lover Leandre,the gypsy,and l'Amour(Cupid) sing not only
Italianatearias
but
fully
developed
cantatas,
complete
with
recitatives,ariettes,
and
interpolated
dances.
17.
The
only
scholarly
treatments
directed
specifically
oward
the
music of
the
Comedie-
Italienne
n
Paris
remain
hose
of
Donald
J.
Grout in
his
1939 Harvard
dissertation,
"The
Origins
of the
Comic
Opera,"
and in
his
"Music
of
the ItalianTheatre
at
Paris,1682-97,"
Papersof
the
AMS
(1941):
158-70.
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
8/39
Louis XIV
and
Subversion
at the
Paris
Opera
271
Figure
1
A
dancer
of the Paris
Opera
costumed
as Scaramouche.
Aix-en-Provence,
Biblio-
theque
Mejanes.
aspects
of that theater's musical
legacy
were
a
bilingualstylistic
idiom
and
an
emphasis
on the
songs
and
dancesof the divertissement.
oth
Le Carnaval
de
Venise
and Les Fetes
venitiennes
follow the
bilingual
structure
of the
Comedie-Italienne,providing ts musicalequivalent n a markedseparation f
a
French musical
idiom,
most often used
for the
action,
and an Italian
one
(sometimes
set
to
Italian
exts,
sometimes
to
French)
used
almost
exclusively
for the
ubiquitous
divertissements.
s in the
plays
of
Regnard,
hese divertisse-
ments
spill
over their
boundaries
to form the
very
structure
of
the
ballet.
Against
a
background
of
French
recits,
binary
airs,
and
maxims,
the Italianate
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
9/39
272
Journal
of
the
American
MusicologicalSociety
arias
usually
markedair italienor
ariette,
sometimes
simply
vivement
or
gai)
stand
in
vivid contrast
by
virtue of their
da
capo
form,
bolder
harmonic
pro-
gressions,
accented
meters,
florid melodic
lines,
and motto
openings
in
the
style of Alessandro Scarlattior Giovanni Bononcini; other arias,more eco-
nomical
n
nature,
employ
the triadic
melodies,
simple
harmonies,
and
repeated
notes of the nascent
opera
buffa. "Orfeo
nell'inferi,"
a
miniatureItalian
opera
representing
one
of
the carnival estivitiesof Le
Carnaval de
Venise,
ontains
a
series of Italian
recitativesand ariasof both
types,
and the
inserted cantatas
of
Les
Fetes
venitiennes,
while set to French
texts,
are
very
much
along
the lines
of these Italian
models. Like the Italianate
ocal
music,
the instrumental
music
is
characterized
by gaiety,
verve,
and extroversion.The
6/4
meter and
lively
rhythms
of
the Venetian
forlana,
he
gondoliers'
dance
traditionally
ccompa-
nied by tambourines,permeatesthe two ballets.18Besides the strictlymusical
aspects,
other features
shared
by Campra's
ballets and
the
plays
of
the
Comedie-Italienne
include a
deliberate
affront to the
classical aesthetic
through
a
sustained
heatricality
nd
self-referentiality;
related
generic
desta-
bilization,
connected to and
symbolized
by
the
use
of
masks;
he
juxtaposition
of
autonomous comic
fragments
unified
only by
a
consistent
rapidpacing;
the
practice
of
"augmentation,"
which
allowed
new entriesto
be added with new
productions;
and
an
amalgam
of
comedy,
realism,
and
occasional
melodrama
in
the
depiction
of a
poetic
and
festiveuniverse.
The most important egacyof the Comedie-Italienne,however,was its use
of all
these
elements in
the serviceof a
subversive atire
directly
argeting
Louis
XIV
through
the
absolutist
genres
and
roles
associatedwith
royal
propaganda.
In
its
opera parodies,
the
Comedie-Italienne
had
ridiculed
figures
such as
Jupiter,
Apollo,
Pluto,
Hercules,
and
Renaud,
who had
stood as
standard ur-
rogates
for
Louis XIV in
the
pantheon
of
royal
propaganda.
Indeed,
it
had
bested these
gods
and
heroes
through
the
triumph
of
its lovers
and
lower-class
servant
characters uch as
Arlequin,
Scaramouche,
and
Pierrot.Since
its
begin-
nings,
moreover,
the
commedia
dell'arte
had held
a
strong
associationwith
carnival,whose spiritof irrationality nd satiricreversal, levatingthe low and
reducing
the
high,
had
provided
a
mask for
political
subversionand even
revolt a
number of
times over
the
course
of
the
sixteenth and
seventeenth
centuries.19The
Comedie-Italienne
was
not the
only
theater to
incorporate
18.
On
the
forlana,
see
Paul
Netd,
"Notes sur la
forlane,"
La
Revue musicale
14,
no. 139
(1933): 191-95;
and
James
Anthony,
"Some
Uses of
the
Dance in the
French
Opera-Ballet,"
Recherchesur
la
musique
ranfaise
classique
(1969):
75-90. In
1683,
in a
special
report
on
Venice,
the
Mercuregalante
had
called the
forlana he
"prettiest"
f the
Venetian
dances;
n other
sources t
is
associatedwith
exoticism,
paganism,
and
orgy.
19. The connections among carnivallicense, insurgence, and rebellion in early modern
Franceare
discussed n
Natalie
Zemon
Davis,
Society
nd
Culture in
Early
Modern
France:
Eight
Essays
Stanford,
Calif.:
Stanford
University
Press,
1965);
Emmanuel
Le
Roy
Ladurie,
Carnival
in
Romans,
rans.
Mary Feeney (New
York:
G.
Braziller,
1979);
Daniel
Fabre,
Carnaval
ou
lafite
d
l'envers
Paris:Gallimard,
1992);
and
Yves-Marie
Berce,
Fete
et
revolte:Des
mentalitis
populaires
du
XVIe au
XVIIIe
siicle
(Paris:Hachette,
1976).
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
10/39
Louis XIV and Subversionat
the Paris
Opera
273
this
spirit
of
satiric
reversal,
but
the
consistency
with which
it did so and
the
success
of
its
productions, earning
at once the adoration
of the
public
and
the
wrath
of the
king,
had
a
profound
influence
on Frenchcultural
ife
both
before and after he troupewas banished.20
A
subversive,
carnivalesque pirit,
directly
related
to
that of the
Comedie-
Italienne,
nforms
the overallstructureas
well
as
specific
details of Le
Carna-
val
de
Venise
nd Les Fetes
venitiennes.Like the
plots
of the Italians
and
the
later
thedtre
de
lafoire,
those
of
Campra's
ballets arebased
on
a
sophisticated
blend of
satire,
allusion,
and
parody.
Whereas
he Comedie-Italiennehad
most
often
targeted
the
contemporary operas
of
Jean-Baptiste
Lully
and
the
tragedies
of
Racine and
Corneille,
the ballets of
Campra
return to
images
more
concretely
associated
with
Louis XIV from the
beginning
of his
reign-
especially hose connected to roles he had danced in the earlyballet de cour.
By parodying
or
reversing
these
roles,
and
through
them
royal
images
of
power,
Campra's
balletsstrike
at
the
core of
official
propaganda.
Campra
knew
the musical
scores to the
balletsde
cour,
arranging
a
number
of
them for his
1702
pastiche
Les
Fragments
de
Lully.Though public
audi-
ences
would not
have had
access
to
stage
performances
of
the
balletsde
cour,
there is
evidence that
their
livretsbecame
collector's
items and
circulated
n
manuscript throughout
the
late
seventeenth
century.21
The
publication
in
1698 of Isaac
de
Benserade's
exts
for
the
balletsde
cour,
along
with a revival
of interest in
dancing perhaps
connected with the
vogue
of the
public
mas-
querade,
contributed to
a
marked revival of
interest in the
ballet
de
cour
around the
turn of
the
century.
Even if
Campra's
audiences did
not know
these
livrets,
however,
the roles
that
Louis had
danced in the
ballet
de
courhad
passed,
through
constant
repetition
in
paintings,
engravings,statuary,
monu-
ments,
and
literary
panegyrics
of all
sorts,
into a
common
vocabulary
well
known
by
the
French
people.
Since the
connection had
to
do
more with
image
than
with
plot,
the
satire
could
be
universally
ppreciated,
specially
n
the frame
of
lavish
spectacle
bearing
natural
associationswith
court
festivities.
20.
Although
the
history
of
the
commedia
dell'arte s
well
documented,
the Italians'use of
satire
has
received ittle
scholarly
attention.
It is
difficult o
document because
t
occurred
primar-
ily
in
improvised
divertissementsather
than in
the texted
script,
but the
reversalsof
character
types, picked
up by
other
forms of
theater,
may
be
considered
clear
evidence. The
subject
is
treated n
relationto
the
painter
Antoine
Watteau
n
Crow,
Paintersand Public
Life,
48-57;
and
Plax,
Watteau,
40-52.
Evidence
points
to
a
definite
subversive ntent
in
Watteau's
portrayal
f the
commedia
dell'arte.
21.
Frequent
allusions
o the
livrets f
the
balletsde
cour
n
the
correspondence
of
Madamede
Sevigne,
for
example,
attest to a
general familiarity
with the
genre
among
an
educated class.The
livretsof the
ballets
de cour
were
kept
as
souvenirs;
hese
became
especiallyprized
by
collectors n
the 1680s and 1690s. This process continued into the eighteenth
century,
when a number of
ballets
de cour
were
bound
as
collector's
tems. On
the
collections of
curieux
and
the transmission
of the
ballets
de
cour,
ee
Patricia
Ranum,
"'Mr
de
Lully
en trio':
Etienne
Loulie,
the
Foucaults,
and the
Transcription
f
the
Worksof
Jean-Baptiste
Lully
(1673-1702),"
in
Jean-Baptiste
Lully:
Actes
du
colloque,
d.
Jerome
de
La
Gorce
and Herbert
Schneider
Laaber:
Laaber
Verlag, 1990),
312-15.
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
11/39
274
Journal of the American
Musicological
Society
At the
same
time,
more
specific
references
o the balletsde cour
could
be
en-
joyed by
a
smaller
group
of
artists,
writers,
and connoisseurswho formed
an
inner
circle
privy
o all the nuancesof a
complex political
oke.
The
Sons
of
Jean-BaptisteLully
and Their
Tragedies
n
musique
A
subversive
political
ibertinismat the
Opera
may
be
traced
to two
tragedies
en
musique
composed,
ironically, by
two of
Lully's
sons:
Zephire
et
Flore
(1688),
by
Louis
and
Jean-Louis
Lully,
and
Orphee
1690),
by
Louis
Lully.
Their
librettist,
Michel du
Boulay,
a
musicianand
poet,
frequented
the
liber-
tine community known as the Temple,22whose habitues also included Jean
de
La
Fontaineas
well as the libertine
poets
Guillaume
Amfrye
Chaulieu
and
Charles
Auguste,
marquis
de
La
Fare,
and
the
librettist-composer
Abbe
Fran;ois-Seraphin
Regnier-Desmarais.
he
Lully
sons had
strong
connections
at
the
Temple.
They
were also
commissioned
by
the libertine
duc de
Vendome,
in
1687 and
again
n
1691,
to
compose
elaborate
divertissementst
his
private
home in
Anet
in
honor
of Louis
XIVs son
Louis,
the
dauphin
of
France,at
a
time
when a
covert
political
faction
was
forming
around this heir
to
the throne.23
Both operasbegin with prologues that would have surprisedan audience
accustomedto
the
tragedie
en
musique
of
Lully
pere.
In
Z6phire
t
Flore,
wo
shepherds
refuse
to
praise
he
king,
one
claiming
that
"to
praise
him in
a
dig-
nified
manner s
not within
my
power,"24
he other
vaguely
alluding
o a secret
he
harbors.In
Louis
Lully's
Orphee,
n
audience
expecting
to be
entertained
finds
only
an
empty
theater,
through
whose
back
portico
may
be seen
the
bleak
signs
of
winter.
Venus,
coming
to
the aid of
the
disappointed
audience,
inveighs
against
"useless
pomp"
and
the horrors
of
war,
thus
calling
nto
ques-
tion not
only
the
pompous
style
and
glorious
heroism of
standard
operatic
praise,but alsoLouisXtV'smilitaryprogram.
Zephire
t
Flore
embodies the
negative
aspects
of
absolutist
aggression
and
tyranny
n
the
characterof
Boreas.
Cruel
god
of the
north
wind,
he
violently
abducts
Flora,
goddess
of
spring
and
traditional
ymbol
of
abundance,
o the
accompaniment
of a
furious
"storm"
symphony.
Holding
her in
captivity,
nd
along
with
her the
symbolic
qualities
of
beauty, abundance,
and
joy,
he
tor-
22.
Roger
Picard,
Les
Salons
itteraires t
la
societe
ranfaise,
1610-1789
(Paris
and New
York:
Brentano's,
1943),
125.
23.
Jules
Ecorcheville,
"Lully
gentilhomme
et sa
descendance:
Les
Fils
de
Lully,"
Bulletin
de
la Societenternationalede musique7 (1911): 1-27. Neither of Lully'ssons' operasfound favor
with
Louis
XIV,
who
received hem
coldly.
On the
faction
surrounding
he
dauphin,
see
Fumaroli,
Le
Poite et
le
roi,
484;
and
Emmanuel
Le
Roy
Ladurie,
Saint-Simon
and
the
Court
of
Louis
XIV,
trans.
Arthur
Goldhammer
Chicago
and London:
University
of
Chicago
Press,
2001),
121-59.
24.
Recueil
general
des
operas
epresentis
ar
l'Acadimie
Royale
de
Musique
depuis
on
etablisse-
ment
(Paris,
1703-46;
reprint,
Geneva:
Slatkine,
1971),
1:324: "Le
louier
dignement,
n'est
pas
en
ma
puissance."
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
12/39
Louis XIV
and
Subversion
at
the
Paris
Opera
275
tures
her
by forcing
her "to flatter."One
may
read this
opera
as an
elaborate
reversal
of the
mystique
of
the Sun
King,
transforming
and
revealing
he
true
character f LouisXIV as
the winter
wind,
cause of
deprivation,hardship,
and
woe. Although the Sun makes briefappearances sa deusexmachina,the plot
of
Zephire
t
Flore
highlights
nstead
the
violence and
loathsomenessof
Boreas
as absolutist
villain.25
The
opera may
be
interpreted
as a reversalnot
only
of the
absolutist
mage
of the
Sun,
but also
perhaps
of
the content of the
Balletde Flore
1669),
which
almost two decades
earlierhad
exploited
that
image.
The
last
ballet
de
cour
danced
by
the
king
and
the lastof a series of
ballets
representing
a
climax
of
royalpropaganda
n
the
late
1660s,
the Ballet
de Florealso
represented
a
point
of culmination n
the
collaborationof
Jean-Baptiste
Lully,
Isaac
de
Benserade,
and the choreographerPierre Beauchamps.In the spirit of image-making
brought
to
an
apogee
by
these
artists,
he work
had cast
the
king
in
the com-
plementary
roles of the Sun
and
Spring,
the
benevolent
source
and season of
fruition
and
abundance.26 he
argument
of
the work
proclaims
his
absolutist
program
from
the
outset: "This
ballet taken in
its
allegorical
ense
marks he
peace
that the
king
has
recently
given
to
Europe,
the
abundance and
happi-
ness
with which he
crowns his
subjects,
and the
respect
that all
peoples
of the
earth
have
for
His
Majesty."27
ubjects
from all
walks of
life,
from
peasants
enjoying
a
village
wedding
to
inebriatednobles
attended
by
slaves,
demon-
stratethe pleasures
enjoyed
under Louis XIV's beneficent
reign.
The ballet
ends with
magnificent
choruses
and
dances
representing
homage
to
Louis
from all
corners
of
the
earth.
The
Lully
sons'
Zephire
et
Flore
represents
an exact
reversal
of this
royal
propaganda,
with its main
absolutist
protagonist
no
longer
identifiedwith
the
life-giving
sun
but
with
the
cold,
villainous
north
wind. It
is
perhaps
signifi-
cant
that,
at a
time when
political
discontents
were
grouping
around the
Grand
Dauphin,
the
eponymous
protagonists
of the
opera
had
associations
with
this
prince
and
his
wife,
who
had
danced
the
roles of
Zephirus
and
Flora
in a balletdecour
celebrating
heir
marriage
n
1681.28
The
dauphin,
a lover of
25.
There is
no
precedent
in
Greek or
Roman
mythology
for
the
abduction of
Flora
by
Boreas.
Instead,
the
Lullys'
librettisthas
conflated the
myth
of
Boreas's
rude
abduction
of
the
nymph Orithyia
with the
myth
of Flora
and
Zephyrus,
a
happy
story
of
gentle (and free)
love,
evoked
by
the
mild
breath of
the
roving
west
wind.
The
conflation of
the two
myths
brings
together
the
libertines'
belief
in
freedom
of both a
personal
and a
political
nature.
26.
Louis
XIVs
first
appearance
s
the
Sun,
in
the
Ballet de la
Nuitof
1653, had
already
been
given
distinct
political
significance
n
the
vers
written for
Louis
XIV
by Benserade,
which
con-
nected
the
night
with the
forces of
civil
unrest,
and
Louis XIV's
role as the
Sun with
the dawn
of
a
new
political
era.
27. Isaac de
Benserade,
Ballets
pour
Louis
XIV,
ed.
Marie-Claude
Canova-Green
Toulouse:
Societe
de
litteratures
lassiques,
1997),
2:829: "Ce
Ballet
pris
en
son
sens
allegorique
marque
a
Paix
que
le
Roy
vient
de
donner
a
l'Europe,
l'abondance
& le
bonheur
dont
il
comble ses
sujets,
& le
respect
qu'ont
pour
sa
Majeste
ous
les
Peuples
de la
Terre."
28. It
is
possible
that
the
dauphin
himself
fostered
the
association.
His
bedroom at
Versailles
was
dominated
by
a
painting by
Poussin
entitled Le
Triomphe
e
Flore;
t
is
reproduced
n
Nancy
Mitford,
TheSun
King
(London:
Penguin
Books,
1966),
108-9.
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
13/39
276
Journal
of the
American
Musicological Society
the
arts,
was admired
by
artists,
and
particularly
hose of the Paris
Opera.
Until his death
in
1711,
in
fact,
he served as monarch of a veritable
counter-
court
that
gathered
there. The
dauphine,
official
patroness
of
the
Comedie-
Italienne, shared her husband's love of the theater. Together this couple
represented
he
possibility
of a future
political
and
culturalera associated
with
the
arts
and theater
of a free
publicsphere.29
If the
Lully
sons' two
works
are consideredas a
pair
of
sorts,
then
it
follows
that the barren
landscape, deprived
audience,
and
"odious
presence"
of
Winter
in the
prologue
to Louis
Lully's
Orphee,
ike
the north
wind Boreas
n
Zephire
t
Flore,
may
signify
the bleaknessof a France
plagued
by
tyranny,
war,
and famine
in
the late 1680s. In both
instances,
one
may
also read the
plight
of
the theatersof Parisand their
audiencesas victims of the
devout
party
and
the king.The alignmentof Venusandher son l'Amour(Cupid)with the pub-
lic
theater,
moreover,
revealsa
tellingchange
in
the
landscape
of
mythological
representation
n
the late
years
of
the seventeenth
century.
In
Louis
XIV's
early
court,
the
god
and
goddess
of love had
occupied
a
prominent
place
in
the
propaganda
of
a
young
king
whose
virility
was
needed to
produce
an heir.
With the
consolidation of Louis's
absolutism
n
the
1670s and
the
devotisme
of
the
1680s,
however,
the
traditionsof
amorous
play
and
charming
hedo-
nism
passed
to a
noble elite.
These
qualities
found
particular
expression
at
the Paris
Opera,
where
around the turn of
the
century
even the
tragedie
en
musiquewas dominated by themes of love at the expense of heroism and
absolutist
glory.30
Further,
there is evidence
to
suggest
that,
during
the
same
period,
an
infatuationwith
love
came
to
reflect
not
only
the
idle
games
of
a
privileged
class,
but
also-encoded within
them-the
subversive
attributes
of
a
libertine
pacifism,
directly
challenging
Louis's
militarism.31
Moreover,
n
the
literature
nd artof
Louis's late
reign,
the
pastoral
mode
thathad
enjoyed
uni-
versal
popularity
n an
earlier
period
began
to take on a
more
specific
meaning
as a
sign
of
political
protest.32
In
Orphee,
he
intervention of
the
god
and
goddess
of
love
may
be
interpreted
n
this
light,
and their
amorous
minuets,
29.
The
dauphin'sfrequent
attendance at the
Opera
is
documented in
the
memoirs of the
marquis
de
Dangeau,
excerpts
edited
by
ChantalMasson
in "Le
Journal
du
Marquis
de
Dangeau,
1684-1720:
Extraits
concernant
la vie musicale a
la
cour,"
Recherchesur la
musique
ranfaise
classique
(1962):
193-223. The
dauphine's
well-documented
struggles
with
the austere
Mme.
de Maintenon
are
hinted at in
the
opera
in
the
relationship
between Flore
and the
villainous
Cletie.
30. The
tragediegalante
s
discussed n
Robert
Fajon,
L'Opera
a
Paris
du
Roi Soleil
a
Louis
e
Bien-Aime
(Geneva
and Paris:
Slatkine,
1984),
132-37.
31.
Venus,
for
example,
was
often
pitted
symbolically gainst
her
warlike
nemesis,
the
goddess
Discord, and her sacred slandof Cytheracame to signifya pacifistcounterutopia o LouisXIV's
court. See
Fumaroli,
Le
Poeteetle
roi,
210;
and
Georgia
Cowart,
"Watteau's
Pigqrimage
o
Cythera
and the
Subversive
Utopia
of
the
Opera-Ballet,"
The
Art
Bulletin 83
(2001):
461-78.
32. On
this
subversive
pastoral
style,
see
Francois
Moureau,
"Watteau
ibertin?" n
Antoine
Watteau
1684-1721):
The
Painter,
His
Age
and His
Legend,
d.
Fran9ois
Moureau and
Margaret
Morgan
Grasselli
(Paris:
Champion;
Geneva:
Slatkine,
1987),
21. Moreau
quotes
the
Abbe
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
14/39
Louis
XIV and
Subversion at
the Paris
Opera
277
sensual
sarabandes,
nd rural
etes
champetresmay
be seen
as a musical
coun-
terdiscourse
weaving
through
both
Zephire
tFlore
and
Orphee.
The
plot
of
Orphee
s even more
pointedly
subversive
han
that
of
Zephire
et Flore. n thiswork, Pluto is castas a militaristicyrantdirectlypitted against
the
musician-hero
Orpheus.
Frequent
allusions
o music
and freedom
support
the
underlying
heme of the cruel
despot
defied
by
the
pacifist
artist.
Orpheus,
taking
refuge
in
the
countryside
of
Thrace,
voices his
dislikeof the
"odious
fetes"
in
which he
is
forced to
participate,
then-realizing
his
words
have
placed
him in
danger
of treason-swears
himself to
silence. Pluto's
dwelling
is
a
royalpalace
surrounded
by exquisite
gardens
(perhaps
he
Trianon,
n
whose
gardens
the
prologue
of
Zephire
et
Flore
is
set),
with
the flames of
Hades
flickering
n the
distance.
There are a
number of
references o the
violence
of
Pluto's "cruelministers," he torturersof Euridice,while Orpheus,"the liber-
ator,"
brings
hope
and freedom
through
his
life-giving
music. The
contrast
s
expressed
by
opposing
musical
characterizations
f Pluto
and
Orpheus.
With
bellicose
fanfares,
Pluto
calls the
spirits
of the
underworld to
arms
against
Orpheus
(Ex. 1).
Orpheus's
song,
in
contrast,
draws on
the
sweet sound
of
harmonious
strings.
Like
that of
Zephire
t
Flore,
he
libretto of
Orphee
would seem
to allude
to
an
earlier
balletde
cour,
n
this instance
the Ballet
de
Psyche
f
1656,
containing
one of
the earliest
portrayals
f
Louis
XIV as
Pluto.33
Benserade's
versde
per-
sonnagerepresentLouis-qua-Plutodrawingon the darkside of his
power
to
reign
over
the
viperous
demons of
the
rebellious court
nobility,
still
fractious
after the
civil
wars of
the
Fronde at
midcentury.
Unprecedented
in
their
directness,
they
take the
form
of a
political
monologue,
in
which
the
king
fulminates
against
his
courtiersand
the
difficultiesof
ruling
over
the
traitors
among
them.
The
music of
Lully
pere,
no
longer
extant,
included
an
infernal
concert
talien for
four solo
voices
and
chorus,
representing
he
qualities
of
Fear,
Suspicion,
Despair,
and
Jealousy
found in
Hades,
and
by
implication,
among
Louis
XIVs
courtiers.
Furtherevidence for an associationof LouisXIV with Pluto
may
be found
in
a
play
by
Jean-Francois
Regnard,
Campra's
ater
librettist or
Le
Carnaval
de
Venise,
t the
Comedie-Italienne n
1688.
Entitled La
Descentede
Mezzetin
en
enfers,34
t
treats
the
Orpheus
myth
in
a
burlesque
Italian
style.
In a
central
Genest,
who in
1707
suggested
that
"many
truths could
be
disguised
under
the
guise
of
the
pas-
toral
veil,
like
parables"
"on
peut
insinuer
beaucoup
de
verit6s
d6guisees
sous ce
voile
pastoral,
t
qui
sont
comme
autant
de
paraboles").
33. Benserade,BalletspourLouisXIV 1:321-25. Louis XIV also danced the role of Pluto in
an
intermede
or
Cavalli's
Ercole
amante,
performed
at
the
Tuileries
n
1662.
The
role
of Pluto
was
not an
unusualone
for a
king
whose
image-makers
mined
mythology
to
reveal
he
many
faces
of
absolutism.
As
Neraudau
points
out
(L'Olympe
du
Roi-Soleil,
65),
the
role of
Pluto
revealed
Louis XIV
as
"masterof
the
dark
orces of the
world"
("maitre
des
forces
obscures
du
monde").
34. In
Le
Theitre
talien de
Gherardi
Paris:
Briasson,
1751),
1:333-72.
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
15/39
278 Journal
of the American
Musicological
Society
Example
1 Louis
Lully,Orphe
(Paris,
1690),
act
2,
sc.
2,
pp.
124-25
Pluton
Re-pous
sons,
Re-pous-sons
cet ou
- tra
-
ge,
Ar-
mons
-
9:$
r~
r
I
:
r-
i
|Lr
:
##
'
O
I
~'.
I
-nous,
Ar
-
mons
-
nous
eh_
=r
II
infernal
scene,
Orpheus, praised
as
an
"Italian"
musician,
performs
a
diver-
tissement
before
Pluto and
Persephone
on
their thrones.
This scene
allows
Regnard
to criticize
Louis XIV
as a
tyrant/buffoon.
For
example,
he alludes
to
Louis XIV's
crippling
axation
by
having
Pluto scheme
to raise he taxes
on
the fuel needed
to build the fires
of hell.
In
another
scene,
Pluto sends
a
group
of
physicians
back to
earth
(where they
will further
his cause better than
in
Hades)
but retains he
apothecaries
o
satisfy
his need for laxatives.
Le Carnaval
de Venise
(1699)
Jean-Louis
Lully
died at the
young
age
of
twenty-one,
a
year
after he
produc-
tion
of
Zephire
et Flore.Louis
Lully,
who
lived
until
1734,
may
have known
Andre
Campra,
who,
like the
Lully
brothers,
also
composed
for the duc
de
Vend6me.
Among
Campra's
other
patrons
were the duc
de
Chartres
the
fu-
ture
regent,
also
in
disfavor),
the libertine duc de
Sully,
who had
commis-
sioned
L'Europegalante
n
1697,
and the Grand
Dauphin.35
Fearfulof
losing
the securityof hispositionas maitre de musiqueat Notre Dame, Camprapub-
35.
Campra,
who
never found favorwith Louis
XIV,
was a
protege
of the
dauphin.
In
1698
he
had
composed
a
divertissement,
ntitled
Vinus,
estegalante,
to be
performed
for the
dauphin
and
his
cousin
the
princesse
de Conti
at
the home
of
the duchesse de la Ferte.
See Maurice
Barthelemy,
Andri
Campra:
Sa vie etson oeuvre
1660-1744)
(Paris:Picard,1957),
44-46.
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp -
8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris
16/39
Louis XIV and
Subversionat the Paris
Opera
279
lished
L'Europe
alante
anonymously
and
Le
Carnaval de
Venise
under
the
name of his brother
Joseph,
a
performer
n the
orchestra
of the Paris
Opera.36
Regnard,
the librettist for Le
Carnaval
de
Venise,
had associations
not
only
with the bannedComedie-Italienne,but alsowith the libertinenobilityin the
late
years
of Louis
XIV's
reign.37
The
prototype
for Le
Carnaval
de
Venise
was
undoubtedly
an
eponymous
play
for
the
Comedie-Francaise
by
Florent
Carton
Dancourt,
produced
in
1690. No
longer
extant,
the
play
s known to
have had its
divertissementswith-
drawn
because
of
censorship.38
egnard's
ibretto for Le
Carnaval de
Venise f
1699,
probably
inked
to
these
divertissements,
epicts
a
pair
of lovers over-
coming
a series
of
obstacles
presented
by
jealous
suitors.
Besides its
connec-
tions with
Dancourt's
play,
Le
Carnaval
de
Venise
lso
contains
allusions
to
Regnard'sown Descentede Mezzetin en enfersand Louis
Lully's
Orphee.
n
addition,
it
may
be
seen both as a
satire of
Louis XIV
by way
of his roles
in
an
early
balletde
cour,
entitled Le
Carnaval
(1668),39
and as a
reversalof the
meaning
and
uses
of carnival n
that
work. The
prologue
to Le
Carnavalis
in-
troduced
by
the
obsequious figure
of
le
Carnaval,
who
offers his
games
and
diversions
"to
distract
he
greatest
monarchfrom
his
glorious
work"
and dedi-
cates
his
festivities
o "the
greatest
king
in
the
world."40
Louis
XIVs role
as
a
plaisir
in
the
following
entree
subtly
connects
the
pleasures
of
carnival-
including
gambling,
feasting,
dancing,
and
singing-with
the
patronage
of
the king. Benserade'sversde
personnage,however,
paint
a
portrait
of Louis
more
fierce than
beneficent,
a
"terrible
pleasure"41
ho
has shown
Spain
and
his
other
enemies
how
greatly
he is to
be
feared.In the
same
vein,
the
masque
serieuxhe wears n
the
final
entry
is
said to hide
the even
more
frightening
vis-
age
of
the
fearsome warrior
underneath.
The
propaganda
of this
work,
like
that of
most
ballets
de
cour,
walksa
tightrope
between
pleasure
and
militarism,
seeking
to balance
mages
of
peacetime
diversions
with those of
warlikehero-
ism.
Despite
the
lightheartedness
of its
series of
celebrations,
however,
the
impression
eft
by
the versde
personnage
s one of
a
carnival
deracinated rom
its
popular
origins
and
transplanted
o the hothouse of
courtly
flattery.
36.
Anthony,
introduction to
Le
Carnaval de
Venise,
iii.
Neither
of
these
ruses seems
to
have
fooled
anyone.
A
contemporary chanson,
punning
on
the
composer's name,
quipped,
"Quand
notre
Archevesque
scaura
L'Auteur
de
nouvel
opera,
/
De sa
Cathedrale
Campra
Decampera" "When
our
Archbishop
knows the
author of
this new
opera,
Campra
will
decamp
from his
cathedral").
37.
Gifford P.
Orwen,
Jean-Franfois
Regnard
(Boston:
Twayne Publishers,
1982),
15-28.
See also
Alexandre
Calame,Regnard,
sa vie et
son
oeuvre
Paris:
Presses
Universitaires e
France,
1960).
38. Melese, LeTheadtret le
public,
77.
39.
Libretto in
Benserade,
Ballets
pour
Louis
XIV 2:807-23.
Though
considered one of
the
ballets
de
cour,
he
work
is
designated
more
specifically
s
a
masquerade
oyale.
40.
Ibid., 2:810-11:
"adelasser e
plus
Grand
des
Monarques
de
ses
glorieux
Trauuaux";
le
plus grand
ROY du
monde."
41.
Ibid.,
2:820:
"un
terrible
PLAISIR"
This content downloaded from 142.104.240.194 on Wed, 1 Oct 2014 15:33:16 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://