Grand opéra

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Grand opéra (French for "great opera", the word opéra is in French masculine) is the name for an opera genre that arose in Paris after the French Revolution from elements of serious and comic opera and replaced the tragédie lyrique as a representative operatic genre . The grand opéra is five acts and contains an extensive ballet . It was part of the operatic repertoire around the world until the 1920s.

history

Edgar Degas : The nuns ballet from the opera Robert the Devil (1831) by Meyerbeer, 1876. The Grand opéra presented revolutionary stage effects, here the gas-powered spotlight as a new type of lighting.

After a phase of experimentation, such as Gaspare Spontini's attempts at renewal , a new "serious" French opera was formed around 1828. This opera genre, which was only later given the embarrassing designation grand opéra, was in competition with the older and less splendid Opéra comique , which opposed the aristocratic operas as early as the 18th century.

While tragédie lyrique and opera seria were opera genres of the aristocracy in the 18th century , the (also through-composed ) grand opéra became the opera genre of the money bourgeoisie after the nobility was disempowered. It was easier to understand than the aristocratic operas and more spectacular than the Opéra comique. Since Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert the Devil ( Robert le diable , 1831), their heroes have mostly not been "simple people", but rather nobles (cf. class clause ). Even the main character in Fromental Halévy's Die Jüdin ( La juive , 1835) is actually of noble descent. The Grand Opéra had a lasting international reputation until the end of the First World War . It offered attack surfaces for numerous parodies such as the Paris operettas by Jacques Offenbach .

The majority of the nobility, however, withdrew from the Grand Opéra. It celebrated a triumph of civic opportunities and "sporting" skills (such as affordability or technical feasibility) over traditional privileges. The polemics of Richard Wagner has contributed to their increasing disdain. Envy played a role in the fact that in the relatively small German-speaking cities, despite all efforts, it was not possible to copy the Parisian achievements.

All the noble and rich, who stay in the enormous metropolis for the most exquisite amusements and diversions, gather, driven by boredom and lust for pleasure, in the lush rooms of this theater in order to be shown the highest degree of entertainment. The most astonishing splendor of stage decorations and theatrical costumes develops there [...] before the indulgent eye, which in turn turns greedily to the flirtatious dance of the most exuberant ballet corps in the world; An orchestra of the strength and excellence that can not be found anywhere else accompanies [...] the brilliant procession of immense masses of choristers and figurants, between which the most expensive singers [...] finally appear [...]. (Richard Wagner: A Theater in Zurich , 1851)

The Grand Opéra was tied to the Parisian institution of the Opéra and its production conditions. Only a few pieces were produced with great effort, which were to remain in the repertoire for decades. The lengths of the acts and the pauses were precisely defined, which often led to disputes with the composers. In contrast to the generic names Tragédie lyrique, Opéra comique, Opera seria and Opera buffa, “Grand opéra” is less common and once had a screaming or derogatory sound, so that one was often content with the term “Opéra”.

Fabrics, music, dance and stage technology

The grand opéra took on many ideas: it developed in part from Christoph Willibald Gluck's reform of the tragédie lyrique (especially in its adaptation by Antonio Salieri ), from revolutionary currents of the opéra comique such as the rescue opera , from the popular spectacle pieces of the tabloid theater and from current trends in serious Italian opera. From initially antique materials as in Spontini's La vestale (1807), the grand opéra tended increasingly towards late medieval historical subjects until 1828. It is precisely the politically conflict-laden subjects that lead to great successes: a popular uprising in François Auber's La muette de Portici ( The Mutes from Portici ), the expulsion of the Protestant minority from France in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Die Huguenots (Les Huguenots, 1836) or anti-Semitism in Halévy's Die Jüdin (1835).

While Gioachino Rossini once again cultivated a rather baroque, opulent musical style with Wilhelm Tell ( Guillaume Tell , 1828), the majority of the grand opéras strove for a light, catchy and clear musical language in which the orchestra did not dominate too much and the vocal soloists theirs Being able to show virtuosity without stepping out of the action, which was later often misunderstood as meaninglessness. Tone color or room design are more important in the music of the Grand Opéra than an “inner-musical” content.

Technically stage, as in the melodrama driven a considerable effort: with large costumed parades, sometimes with horses on stage. Numerous musical and theatrical innovations emanated from the Grand Opéra, such as the pointed dance (in Meyerbeer's Robert the Devil ), the integrated pantomime (the mute Fenella in The Mute from Portici ), technical innovations on the stage such as the arc as the “sun of the prophets” (in Meyerbeer's Der Prophet ), or dramaturgical patterns such as the public scandal of a private conflict that inspired Richard Wagner's musical drama .

Works

The composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, together with his librettist Eugène Scribe, was the main representative of the Grand opéra with Die Huguenots (1836) and The Prophet (1849), which were among the most frequently performed operas in the world up until the First World War. Richard Wagner ( Rienzi , 1842), Gaetano Donizetti ( Dom Sébastien , 1843) Hector Berlioz ( Les Troyens , 1858) and Giuseppe Verdi ( Jérusalem , 1847; Les vêpres siciliennes , 1855; Don Carlos , 1867) have also written grand opéras.

Meyerbeer's last opera L'Africaine (1865), which indirectly addressed the issue of the colonial powers , was again a great success. With Hamlet (1868) Ambroise Thomas was able to write another work that reached almost 400 performances at the Opéra. After Meyerbeer's death, however, the grand opéra seemed exhausted and in turn gave way to the opéra comique and a late-romantic renewal of the tragédie lyrique (for example with Jules Massenet , see Drame lyrique ). As a German grand opéra, Die Queen von Saba (1875) by Karl Goldmark remained in the repertoire for half a century.

After the First World War, the grand opéra increasingly disappeared from the repertoire. This was partly due to social changes, and partly to the versions listed, which had been distorted through decades of editing. Since around 1980 there has been a renewed interest in these works. Directors such as Robert Wilson , John Dew and Hans Neuenfels have taken on them again.

literature