Theatrical Politics in Ancien Regime France: Music, Genre, and Meaning
THEATRICAL POLITICS IN ANCIEN RÉGIME FRANCE: MUSIC, GENRE, AND MEANING AT THE PARISIAN FAIR THEATERS, 1678–1723 A dissertation submitted to The Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the College-Conservatory of Music 2020 by Erik Matthew Paffett B.Mus., West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2009 M.M., West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2011 M.M., University of Cincinnati, 2019 ABSTRACT The theatrical genre comédie en vaudevilles, comprising newly-written texts set to pre- existing popular songs, enjoyed tremendous popularity at the Parisian trade fair theaters in the early eighteenth century. Because of problems stemming from its historiography, the comédie en vaudevilles has not always been clearly distinguished from the later (post-1760) genre opéra- comique. Inclined to understand French theatrical genres within evolutionary frameworks amid largescale nationalist efforts to rediscover France’s cultural past, scholars in the nineteenth century began to consider the comédie en vaudevilles as a primitive or lesser form of opéra- comique. François-Joseph Fétis sought opéra-comique’s origins in medieval theatrical traditions, while others turned to the comédies-ballets of Molière and Lully. Others still pointed to the farcical, acrobatic comedies of the fair theaters in the seventeenth century. In the first part of this study, I demonstrate how the comédie en vaudevilles and other works of the fair theaters have been considered a lesser theatrical form, tracing misconceptions about the genre back to nineteenth-century writings. Here, I also examine an overlooked set of librettos and other primary sources to suggest that the seventeenth-century repertory of the fair theaters does not foreshadow, anticipate, or resemble the comédie en vaudevilles of the early eighteenth century.
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