carnival in venice or protest in paris

8/11/2019 Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris

1/39

Carnival in Venice or Protest in Paris? Louis XIV and the Politics of Subversion at the ParisOpraAuthor(s): Georgia CowartSource: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Summer 2001), pp. 265-302Published by: University of California Presson behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jams.2001.54.2.265.

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2/39

Carnival

in

Venice

or

Protest in

Paris?

Louis

XIV

and

the

Politics

of

Subversion

at the Paris

Opera

GEORGIA COWART

_B

y

the

end

of

the seventeenth

entury

he

absolutist

mage

constructed

to glorifyLouis XIV was losing its credibility.Since the earlyyearsof

his

long personal

reign (1661-1715),

this fictional

identity

had

cast

the

king

in

the roles of

gods

and

heroes,

flattered

him

as

supreme

ruler

and

military

commander,

and

celebrated

him

as the ultimate source

of

courtly

pleasure.

Between 1685

and Louis's

death,

however,

a

series

of

devastating

military

defeats,

an

unprecedented

deficit,

crippling

taxation,

and the loss

of

over a million

inhabitantsto

emigration

and death

by

starvation

belied the

claims of

royal

propaganda.

Probably

because of these

conditions,

along

with

his

secret

marriage

o

the

pious

Mme. de

Maintenon,

Louis

spent

his old

age

in religious devotion and relativeseclusion, rarelyattending the balls, mas-

querades,

and other

divertissementshat

maintainedthe

appearance

of

royal

patronage.

Freed from

Louis's

watchful

eye,

many

members of the

court re-

turned

to

Paris,

where

they

attended

public

spectacles

rivaling

those of

Versailles.Other

courtiers,

ollowing

the

king

in

what became a

fashion

for

de-

votion,

joined

with

clerics

and

lay

writers o

form

a

parti

des

devots

denouncing

contemporary

moral

standards.

The

league

of

the

monarchy

and the

devout

party directly

threatened

Parisian

heatrical

ife,

which, because of its libertine

promiscuity,

n

the

1690s

became the focus of a vituperativepamphletattackknown as the querelles es

theatres.

Despite

official threats and

actual

persecution,

theaters

continued to

Research for

this article

was made

possible

by grants

from the

American Council

of Learned

Societies

and

the National

Endowment for

the

Humanities,

and

by

release

time

provided

by

the

Provost's

Office

at the

University

of

South Carolina.

am also

grateful

o

my anonymous

readers

for

this

Journal,

to

George

J.

Buelow,

Kathleen

Hansell,

Jann

Pasler,

Buford

Norman,

Donald

J.

Greiner,

Rebecca

Oettinger,

and

Daniel

Beller-McKennaor their

comments in

response

to

earlier

versions,

to Rose

Pruiksma or her

response

to

questions

concerning

the

balletde

cour,

o

Robert

Holzer for

assistancewith

Italian

translations,

o

John

Powell for

editing

the musical

examples,

and

to music librarians enniferOttervik at the Universityof South CarolinaMusic Libraryand

Stephen

Toombs

at the

Case

Western

Reserve

University

KulasMusic

Library.

would

especially

like to

thank

Mary

Davis

for

commenting

on a

succession of

ideas and

revisionsover a

period

of

years.

Unless

otherwise

noted,

translations re

my

own.

[Journal

oftheAmericap

Musicological

ociety

001,

vol.

54,

no.

2]

?

2001

by

the American

Musicological ociety.

All

rights

eserved.

003-0139/01/5402-0002$2.00

University of California Press

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/39

266 Journal

of the

American

Musicological

Society

offer fare

ncreasingly

ttuned to the

tastes

of a

developing public sphere.

Even

the

Academie

Royale

de

Musique, formerly

dentified with

royal

encomium,

began

to

celebrate nstead the

nobility

and

upper

bourgeoisie

that

populated

its foyers and loges.1 The genre that most clearlyreflected this shift in taste

was

the

opera-ballet

f Andre

Campra (1660-1744)

and

the

choreographer

Guillaume-Louis

Pecour,

which

reconfigured

he

conventions of

monarchical

praise

n

the old ballet de

cour

to

reflect the

identity

of

a new social

elite.

Like

the

paintings

of

Watteauwith which

they

have

been

compared,2

Campra's

bal-

lets,3

eschewing

the

heavy

grandeur

and

magnificence

associatedwith

Louis

XIV,

heraldedthe

qualities

of

lightheartedness,brilliance,

and

galanterie

that

would

characterize

he

Regency period

(1715-21).

An

iconoclastic

"modernism"

may

be

clearly

seen in

Campra's

wo

full-

length balletson the theme of Venetiancarnival,LeCarnaval deVenise1699,

libretto

by

Fran$ois

Regnard)

and Les Fetes

venitiennes

(1710,

libretto

by

Antoine

Danchet).4

These

works,

punctuating

the

final

period

of

Louis

XIV's

reign, sparkle

ike

brightjewels

against

the

lackluster ultural

etting

of

his late

years.

Like

Campra's

other

ballets,

Le

Carnaval de

Venise nd LesFetes

veni-

tiennes

represent

a

sophisticated

blend

of

elements taken

from

the

ballet de

cour,

he

tragedie

en

musique,

nd the

comedie-ballet.

nother

seldom

acknowl-

edged

source

for

Campra's

ballets is

the

Comedie-Italienne,

the

outlawed

1.

On

French

opera

audiences

in

the

late

seventeenth and

early eighteenth centuries,

see

Ariane

Ducrot,

"Les

Representations

de

l'Academie

de

musique

a

Paris

au

temps

de

Louis XIV

(1671-1715),"

Recherches

ur la

musique

ranfaise

classique

10

(1970):

19-55; Jerome

de la

Gorce,

"Opera

et

son

public

au

temps

de

Louis

XIV,"

in

The Garland

Libraryof

the

History

of

Western

Music,

ed. Ellen

Rosand

(New

York:

Garland,

1985), 11:27-46;

John

Lough,

Paris

Theatre

Audiences

n the

Seventeenth nd

Eighteenth

Centuries

London:

Oxford

University

Press,

1957);

Paul

Lacroix,

The

Eighteenth

Century:

ts

Institutions,

Customs,

nd

Costumes

New

York:

Ungar,

1963);

Pierre

Melese,

Le

Theadtret

le

public

a

Paris sous

Louis

XIV,

1659-1715

(Paris,

1934;

reprint,

Geneva:

Slatkine,

1976);

and

(for

a

slightly

ater

period)

James

H.

Johnson,

Listen-

ing

in

Paris:

A

Cultural

History

Berkeley

and Los

Angeles:

University

of

California

Press,

1995).

2. Louis de Cahusacwas the first to draw this comparison, n La Danseancienne et moderne

ou

Traiti

historique

e la

danse

The

Hague:

J. Neaulme,

1754),

2:169-80.

3. In

"The

French

Opera-Ballet

n

the

EarlyEighteenth

Century:

Problemsof

Definition

and

Classification"

this

Journal

18

[1965]:

197-206),

James

Anthony

makes a

persuasive

case for

defining

the

opera-ballet y

its lack

of

continuous

dramatic

action.

As he

acknowledges,

however,

the term

was

rarely

used

in the

eighteenth

century,

when

ballet

was the

standard

designation

for

operatic

works

based on

the

dance,

whether

or not

their

action was

continuous.

As the

works un-

der

discussion

here

differ

n

their

use

of

continuous

action,

yet

hold

important

similarities

n

other

ways germane

to the

investigation,

I will

follow

eighteenth-century

practice

n

designating

them

simply by

the

term ballet.

I will

reserve

opera-ballet

o

refer

generally

o

ballets

produced

at

the

Paris

Opera,

as

opposed

to

works

produced

at

court.

4. The originalscoreswere published by Ballard n 1699 and 1710 respectively.A facsimile

reprint

of

Le

Carnaval de

Venise,

dited

by

James

Anthony

(Stuyvesant,

N.Y.:

Pendragon

Press,

1989),

includes

a

useful

introduction and

lavish

llustrations.

Campra

had

already

ntroduced

an

Italian

setting

in the

entry

"L'Italie" n

his

first

opera-ballet,

'Europegalante

1697),

and would

do

so

again

in

"La

Serenade

venitienne,"

an

original

entree

added to his

pastiche

entitled Les

Fragments

de

Lully

of

1702.

Other

related

works

include

Andre-Cardinal

Destouches's

Le

Carnaval

et la

Folie

1704)

and

Michel

de

La

Barre'sLa

Vinitienne

1705).



4/39

Louis XIV

and Subversion

at the Paris

Opera

267

Parisian heater

of the commedia

dell'arte,5

whose influence

may

be seen

in

the

comic

plot

structures, characters,masks,

costumes,

and

Italianate

music

of

these two

works.

Though

the Italian

players

had

enjoyed

state

support

since

their arrivaln Franceat

midcentury,

n the 1690s

they

hadmet with

royal

dis-

approval

or

their

subversive atireand in

1697 were

banished

by

order of

the

king.6

Their

exile, however,

only

served

to

intensify

the

French

infatuation

with

the commediadell'arte.The characters nd costumes of

Arlequin,

Scara-

mouche, Polichinelle, Pierrot, Isabelle,

Leandre,

and Columbine were

em-

braced

by

French

players

of the

thedtre

de

la

foire

and

by

the

acrobats,

tightrope

walkers,

and charlatanswho entertained

pedestrians

n the sidewalks

of the Pont Neuf

and

in

other

public

venues.7

They

were

also

appropriated y

members

of

an

upper-class

elite

who,

seeking

to distance themselves from

identificationwith

the

crown,

not

only

attended these

popular performances

but also

staged

their own

costume balls and amateur

plays

d IPitalienne.8

With

Campra's

LeCarnaval

de

Venise,

roduced

two

years

after he

expulsion

of

the

Italian

comedians,

the

commediadell'arteentered the

Opera,9bringing

with it

a mode of

political

satireboth

fashionableand

dangerous.

5.

On

the

commedia

ell'arte,

ee

AUardyce

icoll,

TheWorld

fHarlequin:

Critical

tudy

of

the

Commediadell'arte

(New

York:

CambridgeUniversity

Press,

1963);

Roberto

Tessari,

La

commedia

dellarte

nel

seicento

Florence:

L. S.

Olschki,

1969);

and

Nino

Pirrotta,

"Commedia

dell'arte ndOpera,"n hisMusic ndCulturen ItalyromtheMiddleAges otheBaroque:

Collection

of Essays Cambridge:

Harvard

University

Press,

1984),

343-60. On the

Parisian

Comedie-Italienne,

see

Virginia

Scott,

The Commedia

dell'arte n

Paris,

1644-1697

(Charlottes-

ville:

University

Press of

Virginia, 1990);

and

Gustave

Attinger,

L'Eprit

de la

commediadell'arte

dans e

theitrefranfais

(Paris:

Librairie

heatrale,

1950).

6. In

1689 an actor from

the

company

had

been banished

for

expressing

his

disapproval

f

the

king's politics.

In

1695 a

prominent

officerof

the law was

depicted

as a

common

criminal,

and

the Italians

eceivedan official

reprimand.

The

end came

after he Italians'

currilous

reatment

of

a character

bearing

uncomfortable

similarities o the

prudish

Mme. de Maintenon.

Shortly

there-

after,

Louis XIVs

lieutenant-general

of

police appeared

n

person

at the

Comedie-Italienne

to

place

locks on

the doors

and to

post

a

lettrede

cachet

xpelling

the

troupe.

7. Robert

sherwood,

arce nd

Fantasy:

opular

ntertainmentn

Eighteenth-Century

aris

(New

Yorkand Oxford:

Oxford

University

Press,

1986),

3-21.

The

theatre

de

lafoire

had

begun

as

farce

nterspersed

with

tightrope

or

acrobatic

acts at

the fairsof

Paris,

most

notably

the Foire

Saint-Laurentand the

Foire

Saint-Germain.After the

expulsion

of

the

Comedie-Italienne

in

1697,

the French

players

of the

thedtrede la

foire

took over their

repertory.

The

songs

and

opera

parodies

inherited

from the

Italians'

repertory

were

to

become the basis of the

later

opera-

comique,

irst

designated

as such in

1715. On

the music

of the

thedtredela

foire,

see Nicole

Wild,

"Aspects

de la

musique

sous la

Regence.

Les

Foires:

Naissance de

l'opera-comique,"

Recherches

sur la

musiquefranfaise

classique

5

(1965):

129-41;

and on

the

repertory

of

the

Comedie-

Italienne,

as

it

was

reestablished

n

the

Regency period,

see

Clarence D.

Brenner,

The

Theatre

Italien:

Its

Repertory,

1716-1793

(Berkeley

and Los

Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress,

1961).

8.

On the

Comedie-Italienneand

cultural

politics,

see Thomas E.

Crow,

Painters

and

Public

Life

in

Eighteenth-Century

aris

(New

Haven

and London: Yale

University

Press,

1985),

49-55;

and

Julie

Anne

Plax,

Watteau

nd

the

Cultural olitics

f

Eighteenth-Century

rance

Cambridge:

Cambridge

University

Press,

2000),

40-52.

9.

Babet-la-chanteuse

Elisabeth

Danneret),

the

cantarina of the

Comedie-Italienne,

had

already

ntered

the

Opera following

the

banishmentof

the

troupe.



5/39

268

Journal

of

the

American

Musicological

Society

This

Italian

strain

may

be seen as

part

of a more

general

system

of

satire

ar-

geting

Louis

XIV

in the late

years

of his

reign.

Revisionist

cholarship

ver

the

past

two

decades

has called

attention

to an

undergroundpamphlet

literature,

characterizedby blatantridiculeand even obscenity, attackingLouis XIV,his

family,

and

government

ministers.10

second,

subtler orm of

satire,

nvolving

the

manipulation

of

mythology

and

allegory

for

the

purpose

of

inscribing

an

undercover,

anti-absolutistdiscourse

within

the boundariesof

officially

sanc-

tioned

genres,

has

received

less

scholarly

attention.'1

As

I

will

demonstrate,

this

latter

type

infiltrated

not

only

the Comedie-Italienne

and the

Comedie-

Franqaise

as

well

as the more

blatant theatre

de la

foire),

but after

the

death

of

Jean-BaptisteLully

in

1687,

the

Academie

Royale

de

Musique (the

Paris

Opera)

as well.

The

Opera,

known as the

temple

d'amouror the

temple

de

la

volupte,hadalwaysbeen associatedwith a notorietysomewhatat odds with its

official

status.

This

reputation,

which

intensifiedafter

Lully's

death and

blos-

somed

into

outright

scandal

aroundthe turn of

the

century,

has never been

in-

vestigated

n

connection

with

the

cultural

politics

of

ancien-regime

France.As

I

will

suggest,

however,

the

social libertinism

of the

Operamay

be seen as

a

framefor a

more

serious

political

ibertinism,

oreshadowing

he

free

thought

of the

Enlightenment,

which

already

at the

turn

of

the

eighteenth

century

stood in

opposition

to Louis

XtV's

absolutist

politics.12

The

genre

of

the

opera-ballet

tself

provided

a

powerful

vehicle

for

the

un-

derminingof Louis XIV'sabsolutist mage because it could draw on a system

10.

Despite

stringent governmental

censorship,

this

literature lowed

into

France from the

free

presses

of

England,

Holland,

and

Germany,

or

circulated

n

manuscript

within

France

tself.

See

Peter

Burke,

The

Fabrication

of

Louis

XIV

(New

Haven and

London:

Yale

University

Press,

1992),

135-50;

and Nicole

Ferrier-Caveriviere,

'Image

de

Louis

XIV dans la

littiraturefranfaise

de

1660 a

1715

(Paris:

Presses

Universitaires e

France,

1981),

306-50. A

thriving

underground

music

culture

produced

satiresof

Louis XIV

and

his

family,

ministers,

and

court,

primarily

n the

form

of

subversive

hansons,

but

also

through

erotic

parodies

of

Lully's

tragedie

en

musique;

or

the

latter,

see

Catherine

Gordon-Seifert,

"Heroism

Undone in

the

Erotic Ms.

Parodies

of

Jean-

BaptisteLully's Tragedies n Musique," n Music,Sensation,and Sensuality, d. Linda Austern

(New

York:

Garland,

orthcoming).

11.

It is

briefly

reated in

Jean-Pierre

Neraudau,

L'Olympe

du

Roi-Soleil:

Mythologie

t idiolo-

gie royale

au

Grand

Siecle

Paris:

Societe

d'Edition

"Les

Belles

Lettres,"

1986);

Marc

Fumaroli,

Le

Poete

et le

roi:

Jean

de

La

Fontaine

en son

siecle

Paris:

Editions

de

Fallois,

1997);

and

Anne L.

Birberick,

Reading

Undercover:

udience and

Authority

n

Jean

de

La Fontaine

(Lewisburg,

Pa.:

Bucknell

University

Press;

London:

Associated

University

Presses,

1998).

12.

In

general,

the

term

libertinage

efers

o a

rebellion

against

societal

norms either

through

personal

manners

or

through philosophical

and

political

free

thought.

Though by

no

means all

libertinsde

moeurs

libertines

n

the

sense

used

today)

were also

libertins

d'esprits freethinkers),

the

ideals of

personal

and

political

reedom

often

went

hand in

hand. On

various

aspects

of

liber-

tinism in the seventeenthandeighteenth centuries,see Joan

Dejean,

Libertine

Strategies:

reedom

and

the

Novel

in

Seventeenth-Century

rance

(Columbus:

Ohio

State

University

Press,

1981);

Fran9ois

Moureau and

Alain-Marc

Rieu,

eds.,

trosphilosophe:

iscours

ibertins

des

umieres

Paris:

Honore

Champion,

1984);

Rene

Pintard,

Le

Libertinage rudit dans

la

premiere

moitii

du XVIIe

siecle

(Geneva: Slatkine,

1983);

Antoine

Adam,

Les

Libertinesau

XVIIe

siecle

(Paris: Buchet/

Chastel,

1964);

and F.

T.

Perrens,

Les

Libertinsen

France

au

XVIIe siicle

(Paris:

Leon

Chailley,

1896;

reprint,

New

York:

Burt

Franklin,

1973).



6/39

Louis XIV and Subversionat the Paris

Opera

269

of

representation

hat

had

traditionally

inked Louis

XIV

and

members

of

the

court

to their

dancing

roles in

the ballet

de cour.

Guided

by

the

versde

person-

nage,

lines of

poetry connecting

the

stage personae

of these noble

dancers

to the actualroles

they played

in court life,

Campra

and his librettistscould

reverse

or otherwise undermine the associationof Louis XIV

with

the

deities

and

heroes of

royalpropaganda,many

of whom had firstbeen

developed

in

the

ballet

de cour.The exoticism

that had

always

characterized he

ballet

could

also be turned to

political

use.

In

fact,

the

practice

of

setting incendiarypoli-

tical

critiques

in

seemingly

innocent,

exotic climes had become a

common

literary

ploy

by

the late

1600s.

Campra's

Le

Carnaval

de

Venise

nd

Les

Fetes

venitiennes

ollow in the

wake of

a

series of

utopian

novels that

use

fictional,

exotic

settings

to set out idealized

political

scenarios

containing implicit

cri-

tiques

of Louis XIV's France.13As a

corollary

o the italianismeof their

plots,

Campra's

musical

deployment

of a

florid,

Italianatediscourse

of

subversion

may

also

be

seen

as a direct

challenge

to the vaunted

simplicity

and

purity

of

a French

discourse

of absolutism.This

essay

will

examine the

ways

in which

Campra

uses the

musical

styles,

comic

plots,

and satirical

strategies

of the

Comedie-Italienneas a mask for the

entertainmentsof

a

subversive

Parisian

publicsphere.

Further,

t will

explore

the

ways

in

which

his

balletsdeconstruct

Louis XIV's official

image

through

a

literary

web of

allusion,

satire,

and

par-

ody;

through

a

musical talianisme

undermining

he French

anguage

of

abso-

lutism;

and

through

the

thematic

celebration

of

a new

public

audience as the

subversiveheir to

the

royalprerogative

of

pleasure.

Campra,

Commedia

dell'arte,

and the

Opera-Ballet

The

absorption

of

the

characters,

onventions,

and

music of the

Comedie-

Italienne

into the

opera-ballet ndoubtedly

originated

n

Campra's

choice of

that

theater'smost

famous

playwright,

Jean-Francois

Regnard,

as

librettist or

Le Carnaval de Venisen 1699. At the hands of Regnardand his colleagues,

the

Comedie-Italiennehad

by

the

1690s

become an even

more

stylized

and

verbally

elite

entertainment

than its Italian

counterpart,

while

retaining

the

character

ypes,

pranks,

machines,

and

costumes for

which it had

always

been

famous.

Written

mostly

in

French,

the

late

plays

of the Italian

roupe

retained

the Italian

anguagemainly

for

improvised

scenes based on

physical

tunts,

for

the

flowery

Petrarchan

anguage

of the

lovers,

and for the

singing

scenes of

the

divertissements. hese

divertissements,

sually

at the

ends of

acts,

include

13.

During

the

reign

of

Louis XIV an

unprecedented

number of

utopian

novels were

pro-

duced,

most of them as

a form of

encoded

politicalprotest.

Beginning

with

the

works of

the liber-

tine writer

Cyrano

de

Bergerac,

their

portraits

of ideal

societies,

like

that of

Thomas More's

original

Utopia,

often

veiled satirical

ocial

critiques.

See

Dejean,

Libertine

Strategies;

Robert C.

Elliott,

The

Shapeof

Utopia:

Studies

n a

Literary

Genre

(Chicago

and

London:

University

of

Chicago

Press,

1970);

Lise

Leibacher-Ouvrard,

ibertinage

et

utopies

ous

e

regne

de

Louis

XIV

(Geneva:Droz,

1989);

and

Myriam

Yardeni,

Utopie

et

revolte

ousLouis

XIV(Paris:

A.-G.

Nizet,

1980).



7/39

270 Journal

of the American

Musicological

Society

situations

ndirectly

elated o the

action,

such as

serenades,balls,

or even

plays

(and occasionally

operas)

within

plays.

Regnard,

a

musician

as well

as a

play-

wright,

created

a

model

emphasizing

hese

divertissementsnd

foreshadowing

the opera-comique.n his laterworks for the Comedie-Italienne,a slenderplot

supportsspectacular

ongs,

dances,

choruses,

rope

dances,

gymnastic

tricks,

and machine effects. The

music for

these

productions

consisted of French

popular songs

and Italianda

capo

arias.

The

arias,

among

the earliestknown

examples

of the

genre

in

France,

exhibit the

high

quality

of

contemporary

Italian

operas

or

cantatas,

rom

which

they may

have

been

directly

aken.14

The

thematic

use

of

carnival n

Campra's

ballets

allows

a concentrationof

Italian conventions never before

seen on the French

operatic

stage.

Isabelle

and

Leandre,

he

well-known lovers

(innamorati,

or

in

French,

amoureux)

of

the Comedie-Italienne,serve as protagonistsin both works, while the bur-

lesque

characters

Arlequin,

Pantalon,

le

docteur,

Scaramouche,

Polichinelle,

and Pierrot

appear,

mostly

in

dancing

roles,

in

several

entrees f LesFetesveni-

tiennes.15

(A

dancer of the

Opera,

costumed as

Scaramouche,

may

be

seen in

Fig.

1.)

Without

exception,

the

plots,

like those of

the

Italians,

revolve

around

pairs

of

sighing

lovers,

love

triangles,

masks,

disguises,

clever

escapes

from

aged guardians

and

tutors,

and

divertissements

l'italienne.

In

addition,

the

music of

Campra's

ballets,

clearlyalluding

to

the

italianisme

of

the

Comedie-

Italienne,

may

be

seen as the

primaryentry point

of

the

da

capo

aria

and

can-

tata into Frenchopera.16

Although

the

musical

influence of

the Comedie-Italienne awaits further

study,

a

preliminary urvey

of

the musical

appendices

o the

Gherardi

collec-

tion

suggests

that the

blossoming

of

a

spectacular

talianisme

in

Campra's

works

owes much

to the

Italian

players

and their music.17Two

important

14.

The

primary

ource for

the

musical

repertory

of the

Comedie-Italienne

was a collection

of

pieces

assembled

by

Evaristo

Gherardi,

a

member of

the

troupe,

in

the late

years

of

the seven-

teenth

century.

Consisting

of

fifty-five

plays

with

musical

supplementscontaining

French

songs

and Italianarias, t was firstpublishedin Paris n 1694, before the influx of Italiancantatasand

sonatas,

and

undoubtedly

served,

along

with

the

stage performances

of the

troupe,

to

introduce

the new

Italian

tyle

to

France.

15.

They

also

appear,

as

statues,

n

the

prologue

of La

Barre'sLa

Venitienne

of

1705,

where

in a

symbolic

gesture

they

are

brought

to life

by

Momus,

the

god

of

satire.

16.

Campraconsistently

follows the

plays

of the

Comedie-Italienne,

as

well

as

the musical

style

of its

da

capo

arias,

n

reverting

to

italianisme

for lovers'

declarationsand

serenades.

The

Italian

style

is

also

associated with

exoticism,

especially

n those

female

roles,

such

as a

gypsy

woman,

derived from

the

cantarina of

the

Comedie-Italienne.

The

complexity

of the

Italianate

divertissementsn

Les

Fites

venitiennesof

1710

reflects the resultsof the

flowering

of the Italian

style

through

the

first

decade of

the

century

in

France,

when

Italian sonatas and

cantatas

had

become the rage. In fact, the male lover Leandre,the gypsy,and l'Amour(Cupid) sing not only

Italianatearias

but

fully

developed

cantatas,

complete

with

recitatives,ariettes,

and

interpolated

dances.

17.

The

only

scholarly

treatments

directed

specifically

oward

the

music of

the

Comedie-

Italienne

n

Paris

remain

hose

of

Donald

J.

Grout in

his

1939 Harvard

dissertation,

"The

Origins

of the

Comic

Opera,"

and in

his

"Music

of

the ItalianTheatre

at

Paris,1682-97,"

Papersof

the

AMS

(1941):

158-70.



8/39

Louis XIV

and

Subversion

at the

Paris

Opera

271

Figure

1

A

dancer

of the Paris

Opera

costumed

as Scaramouche.

Aix-en-Provence,

Biblio-

theque

Mejanes.

aspects

of that theater's musical

legacy

were

a

bilingualstylistic

idiom

and

an

emphasis

on the

songs

and

dancesof the divertissement.

oth

Le Carnaval

de

Venise

and Les Fetes

venitiennes

follow the

bilingual

structure

of the

Comedie-Italienne,providing ts musicalequivalent n a markedseparation f

a

French musical

idiom,

most often used

for the

action,

and an Italian

one

(sometimes

set

to

Italian

exts,

sometimes

to

French)

used

almost

exclusively

for the

ubiquitous

divertissements.

s in the

plays

of

Regnard,

hese divertisse-

ments

spill

over their

boundaries

to form the

very

structure

of

the

ballet.

Against

a

background

of

French

recits,

binary

airs,

and

maxims,

the Italianate



9/39

272

Journal

of

the

American

MusicologicalSociety

arias

usually

markedair italienor

ariette,

sometimes

simply

vivement

or

gai)

stand

in

vivid contrast

by

virtue of their

da

capo

form,

bolder

harmonic

pro-

gressions,

accented

meters,

florid melodic

lines,

and motto

openings

in

the

style of Alessandro Scarlattior Giovanni Bononcini; other arias,more eco-

nomical

n

nature,

employ

the triadic

melodies,

simple

harmonies,

and

repeated

notes of the nascent

opera

buffa. "Orfeo

nell'inferi,"

a

miniatureItalian

opera

representing

one

of

the carnival estivitiesof Le

Carnaval de

Venise,

ontains

a

series of Italian

recitativesand ariasof both

types,

and the

inserted cantatas

of

Les

Fetes

venitiennes,

while set to French

texts,

are

very

much

along

the lines

of these Italian

models. Like the Italianate

ocal

music,

the instrumental

music

is

characterized

by gaiety,

verve,

and extroversion.The

6/4

meter and

lively

rhythms

of

the Venetian

forlana,

he

gondoliers'

dance

traditionally

ccompa-

nied by tambourines,permeatesthe two ballets.18Besides the strictlymusical

aspects,

other features

shared

by Campra's

ballets and

the

plays

of

the

Comedie-Italienne

include a

deliberate

affront to the

classical aesthetic

through

a

sustained

heatricality

nd

self-referentiality;

related

generic

desta-

bilization,

connected to and

symbolized

by

the

use

of

masks;

he

juxtaposition

of

autonomous comic

fragments

unified

only by

a

consistent

rapidpacing;

the

practice

of

"augmentation,"

which

allowed

new entriesto

be added with new

productions;

and

an

amalgam

of

comedy,

realism,

and

occasional

melodrama

in

the

depiction

of a

poetic

and

festiveuniverse.

The most important egacyof the Comedie-Italienne,however,was its use

of all

these

elements in

the serviceof a

subversive atire

directly

argeting

Louis

XIV

through

the

absolutist

genres

and

roles

associatedwith

royal

propaganda.

In

its

opera parodies,

the

Comedie-Italienne

had

ridiculed

figures

such as

Jupiter,

Apollo,

Pluto,

Hercules,

and

Renaud,

who had

stood as

standard ur-

rogates

for

Louis XIV in

the

pantheon

of

royal

propaganda.

Indeed,

it

had

bested these

gods

and

heroes

through

the

triumph

of

its lovers

and

lower-class

servant

characters uch as

Arlequin,

Scaramouche,

and

Pierrot.Since

its

begin-

nings,

moreover,

the

commedia

dell'arte

had held

a

strong

associationwith

carnival,whose spiritof irrationality nd satiricreversal, levatingthe low and

reducing

the

high,

had

provided

a

mask for

political

subversionand even

revolt a

number of

times over

the

course

of

the

sixteenth and

seventeenth

centuries.19The

Comedie-Italienne

was

not the

only

theater to

incorporate

18.

On

the

forlana,

see

Paul

Netd,

"Notes sur la

forlane,"

La

Revue musicale

14,

no. 139

(1933): 191-95;

and

James

Anthony,

"Some

Uses of

the

Dance in the

French

Opera-Ballet,"

Recherchesur

la

musique

ranfaise

classique

(1969):

75-90. In

1683,

in a

special

report

on

Venice,

the

Mercuregalante

had

called the

forlana he

"prettiest"

f the

Venetian

dances;

n other

sources t

is

associatedwith

exoticism,

paganism,

and

orgy.

19. The connections among carnivallicense, insurgence, and rebellion in early modern

Franceare

discussed n

Natalie

Zemon

Davis,

Society

nd

Culture in

Early

Modern

France:

Eight

Essays

Stanford,

Calif.:

Stanford

University

Press,

1965);

Emmanuel

Le

Roy

Ladurie,

Carnival

in

Romans,

rans.

Mary Feeney (New

York:

G.

Braziller,

1979);

Daniel

Fabre,

Carnaval

ou

lafite

d

l'envers

Paris:Gallimard,

1992);

and

Yves-Marie

Berce,

Fete

et

revolte:Des

mentalitis

populaires

du

XVIe au

XVIIIe

siicle

(Paris:Hachette,

1976).



10/39

Louis XIV and Subversionat

the Paris

Opera

273

this

spirit

of

satiric

reversal,

but

the

consistency

with which

it did so and

the

success

of

its

productions, earning

at once the adoration

of the

public

and

the

wrath

of the

king,

had

a

profound

influence

on Frenchcultural

ife

both

before and after he troupewas banished.20

A

subversive,

carnivalesque pirit,

directly

related

to

that of the

Comedie-

Italienne,

nforms

the overallstructureas

well

as

specific

details of Le

Carna-

val

de

Venise

nd Les Fetes

venitiennes.Like the

plots

of the Italians

and

the

later

thedtre

de

lafoire,

those

of

Campra's

ballets arebased

on

a

sophisticated

blend of

satire,

allusion,

and

parody.

Whereas

he Comedie-Italiennehad

most

often

targeted

the

contemporary operas

of

Jean-Baptiste

Lully

and

the

tragedies

of

Racine and

Corneille,

the ballets of

Campra

return to

images

more

concretely

associated

with

Louis XIV from the

beginning

of his

reign-

especially hose connected to roles he had danced in the earlyballet de cour.

By parodying

or

reversing

these

roles,

and

through

them

royal

images

of

power,

Campra's

balletsstrike

at

the

core of

official

propaganda.

Campra

knew

the musical

scores to the

balletsde

cour,

arranging

a

number

of

them for his

1702

pastiche

Les

Fragments

de

Lully.Though public

audi-

ences

would not

have had

access

to

stage

performances

of

the

balletsde

cour,

there is

evidence that

their

livretsbecame

collector's

items and

circulated

n

manuscript throughout

the

late

seventeenth

century.21

The

publication

in

1698 of Isaac

de

Benserade's

exts

for

the

balletsde

cour,

along

with a revival

of interest in

dancing perhaps

connected with the

vogue

of the

public

mas-

querade,

contributed to

a

marked revival of

interest in the

ballet

de

cour

around the

turn of

the

century.

Even if

Campra's

audiences did

not know

these

livrets,

however,

the roles

that

Louis had

danced in the

ballet

de

courhad

passed,

through

constant

repetition

in

paintings,

engravings,statuary,

monu-

ments,

and

literary

panegyrics

of all

sorts,

into a

common

vocabulary

well

known

by

the

French

people.

Since the

connection had

to

do

more with

image

than

with

plot,

the

satire

could

be

universally

ppreciated,

specially

n

the frame

of

lavish

spectacle

bearing

natural

associationswith

court

festivities.

20.

Although

the

history

of

the

commedia

dell'arte s

well

documented,

the Italians'use of

satire

has

received ittle

scholarly

attention.

It is

difficult o

document because

t

occurred

primar-

ily

in

improvised

divertissementsather

than in

the texted

script,

but the

reversalsof

character

types, picked

up by

other

forms of

theater,

may

be

considered

clear

evidence. The

subject

is

treated n

relationto

the

painter

Antoine

Watteau

n

Crow,

Paintersand Public

Life,

48-57;

and

Plax,

Watteau,

40-52.

Evidence

points

to

a

definite

subversive ntent

in

Watteau's

portrayal

f the

commedia

dell'arte.

21.

Frequent

allusions

o the

livrets f

the

balletsde

cour

n

the

correspondence

of

Madamede

Sevigne,

for

example,

attest to a

general familiarity

with the

genre

among

an

educated class.The

livretsof the

ballets

de cour

were

kept

as

souvenirs;

hese

became

especiallyprized

by

collectors n

the 1680s and 1690s. This process continued into the eighteenth

century,

when a number of

ballets

de cour

were

bound

as

collector's

tems. On

the

collections of

curieux

and

the transmission

of the

ballets

de

cour,

ee

Patricia

Ranum,

"'Mr

de

Lully

en trio':

Etienne

Loulie,

the

Foucaults,

and the

Transcription

f

the

Worksof

Jean-Baptiste

Lully

(1673-1702),"

in

Jean-Baptiste

Lully:

Actes

du

colloque,

d.

Jerome

de

La

Gorce

and Herbert

Schneider

Laaber:

Laaber

Verlag, 1990),

312-15.



11/39

274

Journal of the American

Musicological

Society

At the

same

time,

more

specific

references

o the balletsde cour

could

be

en-

joyed by

a

smaller

group

of

artists,

writers,

and connoisseurswho formed

an

inner

circle

privy

o all the nuancesof a

complex political

oke.

The

Sons

of

Jean-BaptisteLully

and Their

Tragedies

n

musique

A

subversive

political

ibertinismat the

Opera

may

be

traced

to two

tragedies

en

musique

composed,

ironically, by

two of

Lully's

sons:

Zephire

et

Flore

(1688),

by

Louis

and

Jean-Louis

Lully,

and

Orphee

1690),

by

Louis

Lully.

Their

librettist,

Michel du

Boulay,

a

musicianand

poet,

frequented

the

liber-

tine community known as the Temple,22whose habitues also included Jean

de

La

Fontaineas

well as the libertine

poets

Guillaume

Amfrye

Chaulieu

and

Charles

Auguste,

marquis

de

La

Fare,

and

the

librettist-composer

Abbe

Fran;ois-Seraphin

Regnier-Desmarais.

he

Lully

sons had

strong

connections

at

the

Temple.

They

were also

commissioned

by

the libertine

duc de

Vendome,

in

1687 and

again

n

1691,

to

compose

elaborate

divertissementst

his

private

home in

Anet

in

honor

of Louis

XIVs son

Louis,

the

dauphin

of

France,at

a

time

when a

covert

political

faction

was

forming

around this heir

to

the throne.23

Both operasbegin with prologues that would have surprisedan audience

accustomedto

the

tragedie

en

musique

of

Lully

pere.

In

Z6phire

t

Flore,

wo

shepherds

refuse

to

praise

he

king,

one

claiming

that

"to

praise

him in

a

dig-

nified

manner s

not within

my

power,"24

he other

vaguely

alluding

o a secret

he

harbors.In

Louis

Lully's

Orphee,

n

audience

expecting

to be

entertained

finds

only

an

empty

theater,

through

whose

back

portico

may

be seen

the

bleak

signs

of

winter.

Venus,

coming

to

the aid of

the

disappointed

audience,

inveighs

against

"useless

pomp"

and

the horrors

of

war,

thus

calling

nto

ques-

tion not

only

the

pompous

style

and

glorious

heroism of

standard

operatic

praise,but alsoLouisXtV'smilitaryprogram.

Zephire

t

Flore

embodies the

negative

aspects

of

absolutist

aggression

and

tyranny

n

the

characterof

Boreas.

Cruel

god

of the

north

wind,

he

violently

abducts

Flora,

goddess

of

spring

and

traditional

ymbol

of

abundance,

o the

accompaniment

of a

furious

"storm"

symphony.

Holding

her in

captivity,

nd

along

with

her the

symbolic

qualities

of

beauty, abundance,

and

joy,

he

tor-

22.

Roger

Picard,

Les

Salons

itteraires t

la

societe

ranfaise,

1610-1789

(Paris

and New

York:

Brentano's,

1943),

125.

23.

Jules

Ecorcheville,

"Lully

gentilhomme

et sa

descendance:

Les

Fils

de

Lully,"

Bulletin

de

la Societenternationalede musique7 (1911): 1-27. Neither of Lully'ssons' operasfound favor

with

Louis

XIV,

who

received hem

coldly.

On the

faction

surrounding

he

dauphin,

see

Fumaroli,

Le

Poite et

le

roi,

484;

and

Emmanuel

Le

Roy

Ladurie,

Saint-Simon

and

the

Court

of

Louis

XIV,

trans.

Arthur

Goldhammer

Chicago

and London:

University

of

Chicago

Press,

2001),

121-59.

24.

Recueil

general

des

operas

epresentis

ar

l'Acadimie

Royale

de

Musique

depuis

on

etablisse-

ment

(Paris,

1703-46;

reprint,

Geneva:

Slatkine,

1971),

1:324: "Le

louier

dignement,

n'est

pas

en

ma

puissance."



12/39

Louis XIV

and

Subversion

at

the

Paris

Opera

275

tures

her

by forcing

her "to flatter."One

may

read this

opera

as an

elaborate

reversal

of the

mystique

of

the Sun

King,

transforming

and

revealing

he

true

character f LouisXIV as

the winter

wind,

cause of

deprivation,hardship,

and

woe. Although the Sun makes briefappearances sa deusexmachina,the plot

of

Zephire

t

Flore

highlights

nstead

the

violence and

loathsomenessof

Boreas

as absolutist

villain.25

The

opera may

be

interpreted

as a reversalnot

only

of the

absolutist

mage

of the

Sun,

but also

perhaps

of

the content of the

Balletde Flore

1669),

which

almost two decades

earlierhad

exploited

that

image.

The

last

ballet

de

cour

danced

by

the

king

and

the lastof a series of

ballets

representing

a

climax

of

royalpropaganda

n

the

late

1660s,

the Ballet

de Florealso

represented

a

point

of culmination n

the

collaborationof

Jean-Baptiste

Lully,

Isaac

de

Benserade,

and the choreographerPierre Beauchamps.In the spirit of image-making

brought

to

an

apogee

by

these

artists,

he work

had cast

the

king

in

the com-

plementary

roles of the Sun

and

Spring,

the

benevolent

source

and season of

fruition

and

abundance.26 he

argument

of

the work

proclaims

his

absolutist

program

from

the

outset: "This

ballet taken in

its

allegorical

ense

marks he

peace

that the

king

has

recently

given

to

Europe,

the

abundance and

happi-

ness

with which he

crowns his

subjects,

and the

respect

that all

peoples

of the

earth

have

for

His

Majesty."27

ubjects

from all

walks of

life,

from

peasants

enjoying

a

village

wedding

to

inebriatednobles

attended

by

slaves,

demon-

stratethe pleasures

enjoyed

under Louis XIV's beneficent

reign.

The ballet

ends with

magnificent

choruses

and

dances

representing

homage

to

Louis

from all

corners

of

the

earth.

The

Lully

sons'

Zephire

et

Flore

represents

an exact

reversal

of this

royal

propaganda,

with its main

absolutist

protagonist

no

longer

identifiedwith

the

life-giving

sun

but

with

the

cold,

villainous

north

wind. It

is

perhaps

signifi-

cant

that,

at a

time when

political

discontents

were

grouping

around the

Grand

Dauphin,

the

eponymous

protagonists

of the

opera

had

associations

with

this

prince

and

his

wife,

who

had

danced

the

roles of

Zephirus

and

Flora

in a balletdecour

celebrating

heir

marriage

n

1681.28

The

dauphin,

a lover of

25.

There is

no

precedent

in

Greek or

Roman

mythology

for

the

abduction of

Flora

by

Boreas.

Instead,

the

Lullys'

librettisthas

conflated the

myth

of

Boreas's

rude

abduction

of

the

nymph Orithyia

with the

myth

of Flora

and

Zephyrus,

a

happy

story

of

gentle (and free)

love,

evoked

by

the

mild

breath of

the

roving

west

wind.

The

conflation of

the two

myths

brings

together

the

libertines'

belief

in

freedom

of both a

personal

and a

political

nature.

26.

Louis

XIVs

first

appearance

s

the

Sun,

in

the

Ballet de la

Nuitof

1653, had

already

been

given

distinct

political

significance

n

the

vers

written for

Louis

XIV

by Benserade,

which

con-

nected

the

night

with the

forces of

civil

unrest,

and

Louis XIV's

role as the

Sun with

the dawn

of

a

new

political

era.

27. Isaac de

Benserade,

Ballets

pour

Louis

XIV,

ed.

Marie-Claude

Canova-Green

Toulouse:

Societe

de

litteratures

lassiques,

1997),

2:829: "Ce

Ballet

pris

en

son

sens

allegorique

marque

a

Paix

que

le

Roy

vient

de

donner

a

l'Europe,

l'abondance

& le

bonheur

dont

il

comble ses

sujets,

& le

respect

qu'ont

pour

sa

Majeste

ous

les

Peuples

de la

Terre."

28. It

is

possible

that

the

dauphin

himself

fostered

the

association.

His

bedroom at

Versailles

was

dominated

by

a

painting by

Poussin

entitled Le

Triomphe

e

Flore;

t

is

reproduced

n

Nancy

Mitford,

TheSun

King

(London:

Penguin

Books,

1966),

108-9.



13/39

276

Journal

of the

American

Musicological Society

the

arts,

was admired

by

artists,

and

particularly

hose of the Paris

Opera.

Until his death

in

1711,

in

fact,

he served as monarch of a veritable

counter-

court

that

gathered

there. The

dauphine,

official

patroness

of

the

Comedie-

Italienne, shared her husband's love of the theater. Together this couple

represented

he

possibility

of a future

political

and

culturalera associated

with

the

arts

and theater

of a free

publicsphere.29

If the

Lully

sons' two

works

are consideredas a

pair

of

sorts,

then

it

follows

that the barren

landscape, deprived

audience,

and

"odious

presence"

of

Winter

in the

prologue

to Louis

Lully's

Orphee,

ike

the north

wind Boreas

n

Zephire

t

Flore,

may

signify

the bleaknessof a France

plagued

by

tyranny,

war,

and famine

in

the late 1680s. In both

instances,

one

may

also read the

plight

of

the theatersof Parisand their

audiencesas victims of the

devout

party

and

the king.The alignmentof Venusandher son l'Amour(Cupid)with the pub-

lic

theater,

moreover,

revealsa

tellingchange

in

the

landscape

of

mythological

representation

n

the late

years

of

the seventeenth

century.

In

Louis

XIV's

early

court,

the

god

and

goddess

of love had

occupied

a

prominent

place

in

the

propaganda

of

a

young

king

whose

virility

was

needed to

produce

an heir.

With the

consolidation of Louis's

absolutism

n

the

1670s and

the

devotisme

of

the

1680s,

however,

the

traditionsof

amorous

play

and

charming

hedo-

nism

passed

to a

noble elite.

These

qualities

found

particular

expression

at

the Paris

Opera,

where

around the turn of

the

century

even the

tragedie

en

musiquewas dominated by themes of love at the expense of heroism and

absolutist

glory.30

Further,

there is evidence

to

suggest

that,

during

the

same

period,

an

infatuationwith

love

came

to

reflect

not

only

the

idle

games

of

a

privileged

class,

but

also-encoded within

them-the

subversive

attributes

of

a

libertine

pacifism,

directly

challenging

Louis's

militarism.31

Moreover,

n

the

literature

nd artof

Louis's late

reign,

the

pastoral

mode

thathad

enjoyed

uni-

versal

popularity

n an

earlier

period

began

to take on a

more

specific

meaning

as a

sign

of

political

protest.32

In

Orphee,

he

intervention of

the

god

and

goddess

of

love

may

be

interpreted

n

this

light,

and their

amorous

minuets,

29.

The

dauphin'sfrequent

attendance at the

Opera

is

documented in

the

memoirs of the

marquis

de

Dangeau,

excerpts

edited

by

ChantalMasson

in "Le

Journal

du

Marquis

de

Dangeau,

1684-1720:

Extraits

concernant

la vie musicale a

la

cour,"

Recherchesur la

musique

ranfaise

classique

(1962):

193-223. The

dauphine's

well-documented

struggles

with

the austere

Mme.

de Maintenon

are

hinted at in

the

opera

in

the

relationship

between Flore

and the

villainous

Cletie.

30. The

tragediegalante

s

discussed n

Robert

Fajon,

L'Opera

a

Paris

du

Roi Soleil

a

Louis

e

Bien-Aime

(Geneva

and Paris:

Slatkine,

1984),

132-37.

31.

Venus,

for

example,

was

often

pitted

symbolically gainst

her

warlike

nemesis,

the

goddess

Discord, and her sacred slandof Cytheracame to signifya pacifistcounterutopia o LouisXIV's

court. See

Fumaroli,

Le

Poeteetle

roi,

210;

and

Georgia

Cowart,

"Watteau's

Pigqrimage

o

Cythera

and the

Subversive

Utopia

of

the

Opera-Ballet,"

The

Art

Bulletin 83

(2001):

461-78.

32. On

this

subversive

pastoral

style,

see

Francois

Moureau,

"Watteau

ibertin?" n

Antoine

Watteau

1684-1721):

The

Painter,

His

Age

and His

Legend,

d.

Fran9ois

Moureau and

Margaret

Morgan

Grasselli

(Paris:

Champion;

Geneva:

Slatkine,

1987),

21. Moreau

quotes

the

Abbe



14/39

Louis

XIV and

Subversion at

the Paris

Opera

277

sensual

sarabandes,

nd rural

etes

champetresmay

be seen

as a musical

coun-

terdiscourse

weaving

through

both

Zephire

tFlore

and

Orphee.

The

plot

of

Orphee

s even more

pointedly

subversive

han

that

of

Zephire

et Flore. n thiswork, Pluto is castas a militaristicyrantdirectlypitted against

the

musician-hero

Orpheus.

Frequent

allusions

o music

and freedom

support

the

underlying

heme of the cruel

despot

defied

by

the

pacifist

artist.

Orpheus,

taking

refuge

in

the

countryside

of

Thrace,

voices his

dislikeof the

"odious

fetes"

in

which he

is

forced to

participate,

then-realizing

his

words

have

placed

him in

danger

of treason-swears

himself to

silence. Pluto's

dwelling

is

a

royalpalace

surrounded

by exquisite

gardens

(perhaps

he

Trianon,

n

whose

gardens

the

prologue

of

Zephire

et

Flore

is

set),

with

the flames of

Hades

flickering

n the

distance.

There are a

number of

references o the

violence

of

Pluto's "cruelministers," he torturersof Euridice,while Orpheus,"the liber-

ator,"

brings

hope

and freedom

through

his

life-giving

music. The

contrast

s

expressed

by

opposing

musical

characterizations

f Pluto

and

Orpheus.

With

bellicose

fanfares,

Pluto

calls the

spirits

of the

underworld to

arms

against

Orpheus

(Ex. 1).

Orpheus's

song,

in

contrast,

draws on

the

sweet sound

of

harmonious

strings.

Like

that of

Zephire

t

Flore,

he

libretto of

Orphee

would seem

to allude

to

an

earlier

balletde

cour,

n

this instance

the Ballet

de

Psyche

f

1656,

containing

one of

the earliest

portrayals

f

Louis

XIV as

Pluto.33

Benserade's

versde

per-

sonnagerepresentLouis-qua-Plutodrawingon the darkside of his

power

to

reign

over

the

viperous

demons of

the

rebellious court

nobility,

still

fractious

after the

civil

wars of

the

Fronde at

midcentury.

Unprecedented

in

their

directness,

they

take the

form

of a

political

monologue,

in

which

the

king

fulminates

against

his

courtiersand

the

difficultiesof

ruling

over

the

traitors

among

them.

The

music of

Lully

pere,

no

longer

extant,

included

an

infernal

concert

talien for

four solo

voices

and

chorus,

representing

he

qualities

of

Fear,

Suspicion,

Despair,

and

Jealousy

found in

Hades,

and

by

implication,

among

Louis

XIVs

courtiers.

Furtherevidence for an associationof LouisXIV with Pluto

may

be found

in

a

play

by

Jean-Francois

Regnard,

Campra's

ater

librettist or

Le

Carnaval

de

Venise,

t the

Comedie-Italienne n

1688.

Entitled La

Descentede

Mezzetin

en

enfers,34

t

treats

the

Orpheus

myth

in

a

burlesque

Italian

style.

In a

central

Genest,

who in

1707

suggested

that

"many

truths could

be

disguised

under

the

guise

of

the

pas-

toral

veil,

like

parables"

"on

peut

insinuer

beaucoup

de

verit6s

d6guisees

sous ce

voile

pastoral,

t

qui

sont

comme

autant

de

paraboles").

33. Benserade,BalletspourLouisXIV 1:321-25. Louis XIV also danced the role of Pluto in

an

intermede

or

Cavalli's

Ercole

amante,

performed

at

the

Tuileries

n

1662.

The

role

of Pluto

was

not an

unusualone

for a

king

whose

image-makers

mined

mythology

to

reveal

he

many

faces

of

absolutism.

As

Neraudau

points

out

(L'Olympe

du

Roi-Soleil,

65),

the

role of

Pluto

revealed

Louis XIV

as

"masterof

the

dark

orces of the

world"

("maitre

des

forces

obscures

du

monde").

34. In

Le

Theitre

talien de

Gherardi

Paris:

Briasson,

1751),

1:333-72.



15/39

278 Journal

of the American

Musicological

Society

Example

1 Louis

Lully,Orphe

(Paris,

1690),

act

2,

sc.

2,

pp.

124-25

Pluton

Re-pous

sons,

Re-pous-sons

cet ou

- tra

-

ge,

Ar-

mons

-

9:$

r~

r

I

:

r-

i

|Lr

:

##

'

O

I

~'.

I

-nous,

Ar

-

mons

-

nous

eh_

=r

II

infernal

scene,

Orpheus, praised

as

an

"Italian"

musician,

performs

a

diver-

tissement

before

Pluto and

Persephone

on

their thrones.

This scene

allows

Regnard

to criticize

Louis XIV

as a

tyrant/buffoon.

For

example,

he alludes

to

Louis XIV's

crippling

axation

by

having

Pluto scheme

to raise he taxes

on

the fuel needed

to build the fires

of hell.

In

another

scene,

Pluto sends

a

group

of

physicians

back to

earth

(where they

will further

his cause better than

in

Hades)

but retains he

apothecaries

o

satisfy

his need for laxatives.

Le Carnaval

de Venise

(1699)

Jean-Louis

Lully

died at the

young

age

of

twenty-one,

a

year

after he

produc-

tion

of

Zephire

et Flore.Louis

Lully,

who

lived

until

1734,

may

have known

Andre

Campra,

who,

like the

Lully

brothers,

also

composed

for the duc

de

Vend6me.

Among

Campra's

other

patrons

were the duc

de

Chartres

the

fu-

ture

regent,

also

in

disfavor),

the libertine duc de

Sully,

who had

commis-

sioned

L'Europegalante

n

1697,

and the Grand

Dauphin.35

Fearfulof

losing

the securityof hispositionas maitre de musiqueat Notre Dame, Camprapub-

35.

Campra,

who

never found favorwith Louis

XIV,

was a

protege

of the

dauphin.

In

1698

he

had

composed

a

divertissement,

ntitled

Vinus,

estegalante,

to be

performed

for the

dauphin

and

his

cousin

the

princesse

de Conti

at

the home

of

the duchesse de la Ferte.

See Maurice

Barthelemy,

Andri

Campra:

Sa vie etson oeuvre

1660-1744)

(Paris:Picard,1957),

44-46.



16/39

Louis XIV and

Subversionat the Paris

Opera

279

lished

L'Europe

alante

anonymously

and

Le

Carnaval de

Venise

under

the

name of his brother

Joseph,

a

performer

n the

orchestra

of the Paris

Opera.36

Regnard,

the librettist for Le

Carnaval

de

Venise,

had associations

not

only

with the bannedComedie-Italienne,but alsowith the libertinenobilityin the

late

years

of Louis

XIV's

reign.37

The

prototype

for Le

Carnaval

de

Venise

was

undoubtedly

an

eponymous

play

for

the

Comedie-Francaise

by

Florent

Carton

Dancourt,

produced

in

1690. No

longer

extant,

the

play

s known to

have had its

divertissementswith-

drawn

because

of

censorship.38

egnard's

ibretto for Le

Carnaval de

Venise f

1699,

probably

inked

to

these

divertissements,

epicts

a

pair

of lovers over-

coming

a series

of

obstacles

presented

by

jealous

suitors.

Besides its

connec-

tions with

Dancourt's

play,

Le

Carnaval

de

Venise

lso

contains

allusions

to

Regnard'sown Descentede Mezzetin en enfersand Louis

Lully's

Orphee.

n

addition,

it

may

be

seen both as a

satire of

Louis XIV

by way

of his roles

in

an

early

balletde

cour,

entitled Le

Carnaval

(1668),39

and as a

reversalof the

meaning

and

uses

of carnival n

that

work. The

prologue

to Le

Carnavalis

in-

troduced

by

the

obsequious figure

of

le

Carnaval,

who

offers his

games

and

diversions

"to

distract

he

greatest

monarchfrom

his

glorious

work"

and dedi-

cates

his

festivities

o "the

greatest

king

in

the

world."40

Louis

XIVs role

as

a

plaisir

in

the

following

entree

subtly

connects

the

pleasures

of

carnival-

including

gambling,

feasting,

dancing,

and

singing-with

the

patronage

of

the king. Benserade'sversde

personnage,however,

paint

a

portrait

of Louis

more

fierce than

beneficent,

a

"terrible

pleasure"41

ho

has shown

Spain

and

his

other

enemies

how

greatly

he is to

be

feared.In the

same

vein,

the

masque

serieuxhe wears n

the

final

entry

is

said to hide

the even

more

frightening

vis-

age

of

the

fearsome warrior

underneath.

The

propaganda

of this

work,

like

that of

most

ballets

de

cour,

walksa

tightrope

between

pleasure

and

militarism,

seeking

to balance

mages

of

peacetime

diversions

with those of

warlikehero-

ism.

Despite

the

lightheartedness

of its

series of

celebrations,

however,

the

impression

eft

by

the versde

personnage

s one of

a

carnival

deracinated rom

its

popular

origins

and

transplanted

o the hothouse of

courtly

flattery.

36.

Anthony,

introduction to

Le

Carnaval de

Venise,

iii.

Neither

of

these

ruses seems

to

have

fooled

anyone.

A

contemporary chanson,

punning

on

the

composer's name,

quipped,

"Quand

notre

Archevesque

scaura

L'Auteur

de

nouvel

opera,

/

De sa

Cathedrale

Campra

Decampera" "When

our

Archbishop

knows the

author of

this new

opera,

Campra

will

decamp

from his

cathedral").

37.

Gifford P.

Orwen,

Jean-Franfois

Regnard

(Boston:

Twayne Publishers,

1982),

15-28.

See also

Alexandre

Calame,Regnard,

sa vie et

son

oeuvre

Paris:

Presses

Universitaires e

France,

1960).

38. Melese, LeTheadtret le

public,

77.

39.

Libretto in

Benserade,

Ballets

pour

Louis

XIV 2:807-23.

Though

considered one of

the

ballets

de

cour,

he

work

is

designated

more

specifically

s

a

masquerade

oyale.

40.

Ibid., 2:810-11:

"adelasser e

plus

Grand

des

Monarques

de

ses

glorieux

Trauuaux";

le

plus grand

ROY du

monde."

41.

Ibid.,

2:820:

"un

terrible

PLAISIR"

http://

carnival in venice or protest in paris

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