Backstage at the Revolution
How the Royal Paris Opera Survived the End of the Old Regime
9780226401959
Backstage at the Revolution
How the Royal Paris Opera Survived the End of the Old Regime
On July 14, 1789, a crowd of angry French citizens en route to the Bastille broke into the Paris Opera and helped themselves to any sturdy weapon they could find. Yet despite its long association with the royal court, its special privileges, and the splendor of its performances, the Opera itself was spared, even protected, by Revolutionary officials. Victoria Johnson’s Backstage at the Revolution tells the story of how this legendary opera house, despite being a lightning rod for charges of tyranny and waste, weathered the most dramatic political upheaval in European history.
Sifting through royal edicts, private letters, and Revolutionary records of all kinds, Johnson uncovers the roots of the Opera’s survival in its identity as a uniquely privileged icon of French culture—an identity established by the conditions of its founding one hundred years earlier under Louis XIV. Johnson’s rich cultural history moves between both epochs, taking readers backstage to see how a motley crew of singers, dancers, royal ministers, poet entrepreneurs, shady managers, and the king of France all played a part in the creation and preservation of one of the world’s most fabled cultural institutions.
Sifting through royal edicts, private letters, and Revolutionary records of all kinds, Johnson uncovers the roots of the Opera’s survival in its identity as a uniquely privileged icon of French culture—an identity established by the conditions of its founding one hundred years earlier under Louis XIV. Johnson’s rich cultural history moves between both epochs, taking readers backstage to see how a motley crew of singers, dancers, royal ministers, poet entrepreneurs, shady managers, and the king of France all played a part in the creation and preservation of one of the world’s most fabled cultural institutions.
304 pages | 8 color plates, 19 halftones, 3 line drawings | 6 x 9 | © 2008
History: European History
Music: General Music
Sociology: Sociology of Arts--Leisure, Sports
Reviews
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Past in the Present
Foundings
Trajectories
2 The Storming of the Opera
On the Eve of Revolution
The Struggle for the Opera
3 The Perpetuation of Privilege
The City and the Theaters
The Victory of Privilege
4 Orpheus on the Seine
Opening Night at the Palais-Royal
The Founding of the Paris Opera
5 An Academy for Opera
Why an Academy?The Hybrid Opera
6 Opera de Luxe
The Second Coming of the Paris Opera
Luxurious Lully
7 The Phantom Founders
Luxury and Privilege at the Opera after Perrin and Lully
The War of Luxury and Simplicity
Conclusion: Surviving Revolution
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Past in the Present
Foundings
Trajectories
2 The Storming of the Opera
On the Eve of Revolution
The Struggle for the Opera
3 The Perpetuation of Privilege
The City and the Theaters
The Victory of Privilege
4 Orpheus on the Seine
Opening Night at the Palais-Royal
The Founding of the Paris Opera
5 An Academy for Opera
Why an Academy?The Hybrid Opera
6 Opera de Luxe
The Second Coming of the Paris Opera
Luxurious Lully
7 The Phantom Founders
Luxury and Privilege at the Opera after Perrin and Lully
The War of Luxury and Simplicity
Conclusion: Surviving Revolution
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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