Chanteurs en scène: l’œ il du spectateur au Théâtre-Italien (1815–1848) by Céline Frigau Manning (review)

The title of Céline Frigau Manning’s book is the first of many challenges she makes to received wisdom: cliché has it that spectators attended the Italian musical theatre in Paris purely to listen, and that Italian opera was ‘concert music’, strung together by flimsy plot and negligent scenography. Not so, argues Frigau Manning, whose carefully researched and convincing book considers visual pleasure at the Théâtre-Italien during the Restoration and July Monarchy. Attentive throughout to how commentators construct their experience as spectators, her study first considers the significance of gesture and bodily eloquence on stage. The Italian soprano Giuditta Pasta, a member of the Théâtre-Italien since her debut in 1816, is an important figure in this chapter (and indeed throughout), and receives rich and illuminating discussion. In Part Two, the focus shifts to institutional factors, and the author covers questions such as the career trajectories of artists, logistical factors relating to scenic practice, and acting training. The importance of acting talent for artists’ careers is emphasized, as is the nascent figure of the (Italian) singer-actor, different in significant respects from their counterparts at the French theatres. A critical study of the audience of the Théâtre-Italien then follows (Part Three): although the supposed continuity of Parisian audiences between the Ancien Régime and the Restoration is a myth, this theatre has an élite and homogeneous audience, contiguous with the grand monde, composed in large part of dilettanti — lovers of Italian opera — whose criteria are those of sensibilité and singers with soul. There follow interesting case studies of Angelica Catalani, who had an excellent voice but who failed as a dramatic singer owing to an apparent lack of vocal or gestural expressivity; and of cases that split audience opinion or challenged its canons, such as Marietta Albani, who managed to turn to her advantage an unconventional physique, and rival incarnations of Rossini’s Desdemona by Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran. There is a brief section concerned primarily with scenery, where the typical scène-tableau of the Italians is paramount: information is given on the budget for décors, the peintres-décorateurs of the theatre are discussed, and case studies are provided. Finally, practical constraints regulating scenic practice, among them stage space, lighting, and programming, are considered. Readers will appreciate the wide range of primary sources (archival documents, press reports, iconography), which takes the present study far beyond prior scholarship, such as the (itself pioneering) work of Janet Johnson. This is an outstanding work, for its interpretation of the sources, and for its virtuoso weaving of institutional, aesthetic, and sociological analysis; and one which opera historians cannot afford to ignore. Although I fear that nonspecialists may find the length of the book relative to its scope somewhat discouraging, specialists will particularly value the wealth of detail presented in this pioneering study, which deserves to take its place alongside other leading works of scholarship in the field.