Napoleonic theater decree

The Napoleonic theater decree of July 29, 1807 limited the Parisian theater landscape to eight large theaters . To reduce competition, each theater was restricted to certain genres . This division has shaped the theater genres and their social appreciation worldwide since the 19th century. What was called tragedy, comedy, grand opera, comic opera, vaudeville, vaudeville, melodrama, pantomime can largely be traced back to this classification. It also had the consequence that the circus was no longer counted among the theater performances.

The decree established four first-rate and four second-rate theaters, each limited to a narrow range of productions.

Grands théâtres ("Great Theaters")

• Théâtre Français : the imperial theater dedicated to tragedy and comedy in the sense of French classical music .
• Théâtre de l'Impératrice : "Theater of the Empress" (today Théâtre de l'Odéon), the secondary venue of the former.
• Théâtre de l'Opéra (Académie impériale de Musique): It was dedicated to “song and dance”, that is, the ( through-composed ) great opera and ballet .
• Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique : comédies ou drames mêlés de couplets, d'ariettes et de morceaux d'ensemble : "Comedies and dramas mixed with songs, small arias and ensemble vocal pieces", ie singspiel and comic opera .

Théâtres secondaires ("Secondary Theaters")

• Théâtre du Vaudeville : It was limited to petites pièces mêlées de couplets sur des airs connus (small plays mixed with songs on well-known melodies), so vaudeville as a theater genre.
• Théâtre des Variétés : petites pièces dans le genre grivois, poissard ou villageois : genre poissard , peasant swank and variety .
• Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin , aux mélodrames et aux pièces à grand spectacle : melodrama , spectacle piece and piece of equipment .
• Théâtre de la Gaîté , pantomimes de tous genres, mais sans ballets, aux arlequinades et autres farces, dans le goût de celles données autrefois par Nicolet : pantomimes , farces in the style of the Parisian fairground theater .

Article 3 of the decree stipulated that no new theater hall could be built and no theater company could change its venue without the imperial permit. All other theaters should be closed by August 15th. Similar regulations were enforced in the French province. The larger cities were allowed to have two theaters each, the smaller ones at most one stationary theater troupe.

The decree did not survive Napoleon's resignation in 1815. However, because the audience was homogenized as a result (every Parisian theater corresponded to a social class ), the social framework of the respective theaters was, so to speak, a tradition.

This division between the theaters as institutions was perceived in the German-speaking area as a division between the theater genres, as there was no similar division between the Viennese suburban theaters and the plays imported from Paris were perceived as aristocratic, bourgeois or proletarian products depending on their origin.

literature

• Rüdiger Hillmer: The Napoleonic theater policy. (= Supplements to the archive for cultural history. Volume 49) Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3412127981