Use of Parody Techniques in Jacques Offenbach's Opérettes and Germaine Tailleferre's Du Style Galant Au Style Méchant
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Use of Parody Techniques in Jacques Offenbach’s Opérettes and Germaine Tailleferre’s Du Style Galant au Style Méchant By Melissa Cummins, ©2017 PhD University of Kansas, 2017 MM University of South Dakota, 2013 ME Southeast Missouri State University, 1994 BSE Northwest Missouri State University, 1989 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Musicology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Chair: Colin Roust Paul Laird Scott Murphy Joyce Castle Jeanne Klein Date Defended: March 15, 2017 The dissertation committee for Melissa Cummins certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Use of Parody Techniques in Jacques Offenbach’s Opérettes and Germaine Tailleferre’s Du Style Galant au Style Méchant Chair: Colin Roust Date Approved: April 26, 2017 ii Abstract In past scholarship, Germaine Tailleferre has been briefly written about as the only female member of Les Six and as a composer of instrumental music. Her body of piano music and a few of her other compositions have been analyzed, but her operatic output and style have to this point not been examined. This dissertation begins to fill that gap by studying the radio operas that were commissioned in 1955 by Radio France. Using parodic techniques developed early in her career, Tailleferre and her librettist, Denice Centore, created a cycle of five short operas that reflected the historical scope of French opera in miniature: Du Style Galant au Style Méchant. The fourth opera in the cycle, Monsieur Petitpois achéte un château, is a parody of the opérettes of Jacques Offenbach. This dissertation examines the parodic style of both Offenbach and Tailleferre, and shows how she successfully recreated Offenbach’s compositional style in her radio opera using specific imitative techniques. In the first chapter, an overview of the scholarship on literary and musical parody and available biographical information on both Offenbach and Tailleferre are presented. Chapter 2 is an outline of the history of parody and parodic methods, linking those used in literature to the various methods of musical parody common in twentieth-century music. Chapter 3 is a discussion of Offenbach’s opérettes, his style, and use of parody in his compositions. Chapter 4 is a detailed analysis of La belle Hélène, identifying characteristic parodic traits in Offenbach’s compositional style. Chapter 5 is a presentation of events and mentors from Germaine Tailleferre’s life that influenced her neoclassical style and compositions that displayed parodic tendencies both before and after the creation of the cycle. Finally, Chapter 6 is an in-depth analysis of Monsieur Petitpois achéte un château, connecting the parodic techniques used by iii Tailleferre and Centore with those identified in Offenbach’s opérettes. Highlights of my American premiere staging of this opera are also included. iv Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the assistance and encouragement of many people, some whom I wish to recognize here. Thank you all for your continued support. First, I would like to offer my thanks to the cast, pit, and crew who participated in the American premiere of M. Petitpois, some of whom are pictured and mentioned within these pages. Raffaele Cipriano, my conductor, was essential to the opera’s success as he rehearsed the singers and pit, consulted with Dr. Roust and me on tempos and styles, and essentially recreated a work that had no available recordings to emulate. My seven cast members, Alexis Alfaro, Amelia Lawson, Alan Martin, Anthony Rohr, Denis Ryan, Steve Scott, and Kelli VanMeter, worked tirelessly not only to memorize the French songs and blocking, but also extensive amounts of French dialogue. Merci, mes amis, et plein succès pour l'avenir. Huge thanks to the staff of Kansas Public Radio at the University of Kansas for allowing us to present the radio opera live on the air, its intended format. Special thanks to Media Manager Phil Wilke for taking candid photos and setting up a live-stream video and Sean Michael Keelan for introducing the production and interviewing me before and after the broadcast. My research in Paris was greatly aided by the staff of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, particularly the staffs in the Départements des Arts du Spectacle, de la Musique, and de l’Audiovisuel. Thanks and je suis désolé to Muriel Ndodjio for her assistance in Paris. Elizabeth L. Garver, research assistant in the Carlton Lake Collection of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin, was especially helpful in discovering and scanning some handwritten materials that greatly aided my study of the Tailleferre operas. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Jim Smith, George Gibbs, and Chris Bohling at the Gorton Music and Dance Library at The University of Kansas for their patience with scheduling my work times v around my research and their help finding sometimes extremely obscure materials. Thank you to my many professors and classmates at the University of Kansas, University of South Dakota, Southeast Missouri State University, and Northwest Missouri State University for your support throughout my studies, and many thanks to my theatre family at the Lawrence Community Theatre for your support and friendship, particularly my Guys and Dolls Texan. Sincere thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, Joyce Castle, Jeanne Klein, Paul Laird, and Scott Murphy for their support of my sometimes crazy-sounding efforts. Also, special thanks to John Stephens, Maria Kanyova, Julia Broxholm, Genaro Mendez, David Neely, and Associate Dean Martin Bergee at The University of Kansas for their support and assistance in making the opera a success. Finally, there is no possible way I can fully thank Colin Roust for his mentoring, coaching, support, pronunciation policing, loaning of socks to a cast member, and the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. I know I would not have been able to complete everything that I have accomplished without his help. Merci beaucoup, monsieur. vi Table of Contents Abstract............. ................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................v List of Figures ......................................................................................................................x List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xi Chapters 1. Introduction and Survey of Literature..................................................................1 A. Early Twentieth-Century Compositional Climate ..................................2 B. Methodology ...........................................................................................3 C. Survey of Related Research ....................................................................7 D. Conclusion ............................................................................................14 2. Parody………. ...................................................................................................15 A. Three Basic Parodic Strategies .............................................................16 1. Parodia .....................................................................................16 2. Paratragodein or Paratragoedia ..............................................21 3. Burlesque ..................................................................................24 4. Conclusion ................................................................................25 B. Post-Enlightnement Theories of Parody ...............................................25 1. Staged Works ............................................................................26 2. Russian Formalists ....................................................................27 3. Bakhtin ......................................................................................31 4. Reception Theorists ..................................................................33 5. Neoclassicism in Music ............................................................34 6. Intertextuality ............................................................................35 C. Modern Theories of Parody (post-1960) ...............................................37 1. Structuralists and Post-Structuralists ........................................37 2. Post-Modernists ........................................................................40 3. Deconstructionist Theories and Other Late-/Post-Modern Theories.....................................................................................40 D. Contemporary Definitions.....................................................................45 E. Application of the Definition.................................................................53 3. Jacques Offenbach .............................................................................................55 A. Offenbach’s Paris ..................................................................................56 B. Genre of Works .....................................................................................58 C. General Style Characteristics ................................................................68 D. Characters and Characteristics in Offenbach’s Works .........................71