Music, Theater, and Cultural Transfer: Paris, 1830–1914 ed. by Annegret Fauser and Mark Everist (review)

‘Nothing was more central to cultural life in nineteenth-century Paris than the lyric stage’ (p. 1). It is hard to imagine a more convincing corroboration of this statement than the richly varied, intriguingly and closely interlinked collection of fifteen essays it introduces. The volume’s three sections, ‘Institutions’, ‘Cultural Transfer’, and ‘The Midi and Spain, or Autour de Carmen’, provide a comprehensive account of a highly significant and intricate period in French musical history. Running through the collection is the conviction that enhanced understanding of the evolution of diverse theatrical institutions is reached through evaluation of the ways in which they and the individuals they employ interact. Olivier Bara’s analysis of Jean-Baptiste Chollet’s time at the Opéra-Comique and Lesley Wright’s discussion of the complex character of Léon Carvalho, its one-time director, show the advantages and disadvantages of the artist–institution relationship from multiple viewpoints. Katharine Ellis examines the roles of several theatre managers during the Second Empire, when the now-familiar problem of public-interest arts funding began to emerge. Offenbach’s role in establishing the aesthetic identity of the Bouffes-Parisiens is a focus of Mark Everist’s chapter, while David Grayson, by analysing the experiences of the composer-journalist Victorin Joncières, unravels the problems of young opera composers struggling to have their work performed. Finally in this section, through the figure of Fromental Halévy, Diana R. Hallman assesses the benefits and personal cost of employment at the prestigious Opéra de Paris. Essays in Part II focus on the adaptation of particular works to distinct cultural, political, and aesthetic contexts. Sarah Hibberd describes how Auber and Scribe succeeded in uniting history and aesthetics in Gustave III. Arnold Jacobshagen’s finding that Palianti’s mise en scène for Halévy’s La Juive dates from its revival around 1866 rather than from the original 1835 production has implications that go far beyond the piece itself. Rebecca Harris-Warrick’s discussion and documentation of press reaction to different versions of Lucia di Lammermoor in three separate institutional contexts provides a vivid illustration of the practice of reworking. Annegret Fauser, in her essay on Tannhäuser, richly documents the assertion (Baudelaire) that the French, critics and public alike, lacked aesthetic judgement. The positioning at this point in the volume of Marian Smith’s ‘tale of two Sylphides’ and Peter Lamothe’s analysis of Massenet’s Les Érinnyes subtly enhances the works’ Wagnerian resonances. All three essays in the third section deal with matters relating to the filtering of one culture through another. Kerry Murphy’s multifaceted discussion of Carmen is complemented by Ralph P. Locke’s detailed study of original Spanish sources used by Bizet. Finally, focusing on the links between Emma Calvé’s international career and her success in the role of Carmen, Steven Huebner reiterates one of the collection’s leitmotifs: the impact of individual endeavour on the whole. Biographical notes on contributors are preceded by a comprehensive Bibliography, Discography and Filmography and by Levin’s immensely helpful overview of Parisian musical theatres from 1830 to 1900. For those less familiar with the topic, this might well prove to be the ideal introduction to the subject so brilliantly explored and documented in the body of the work.