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125-648: His first professional appearances occurred as a youth in Paris at the Opéra-Comique , at Fontainebleau , in Berlin before Frederick II and his brother Prince Henry of Prussia , in Dresden and Strasburg . In 1747 he moved to Strasbourg, where he remained until 1750 before moving to Lyon. In 1751, he composed his first great work, Les Fêtes Chinoises for Marseilles. The work was revived in Paris in 1754 to great acclaim. In 1755, he

250-632: A bronze bust and red marble tombstone were erected in his memory there by the Société de la Compositeurs de Musique in 1883, the exact site of his burial remains unknown to this day. While the details of his biography are vague and fragmentary, the details of Rameau's personal and family life are almost completely obscure. Rameau's music, so graceful and attractive, completely contradicts the man's public image and what we know of his character as described (or perhaps unfairly caricatured) by Diderot in his satirical novel Le Neveu de Rameau . Throughout his life, music

375-640: A bulwark against the italianate invasion of Rossini". In 1840, the Opéra-Comique company settled in the second Salle Favart (architect Louis Charpentier; 1,500 seats), built on the site of the first theatre, destroyed by fire in 1838. The new house was inaugurated with a revival of Hérold's Le Pré aux clercs . During the 1850s and 1860s the Théâtre Lyrique offered competition in the type of repertoire staged, being particularly strong in its policy of new commissions. Performances took place on most evenings of

500-506: A composer who wanted above all to be renowned as a theorist of the art. Nevertheless, it is not solely addressed to the intelligence, and Rameau himself claimed, "I try to conceal art with art." The paradox of this music was that it was new, using techniques never known before, but it took place within the framework of old-fashioned forms. Rameau appeared revolutionary to the Lullyistes, disturbed by complex harmony of his music; and reactionary to

625-533: A didacticism that was specifically intended to illuminate, scientifically, the structure and principles of music. With careful deductive reasoning, he attempted to derive universal harmonic principles from natural causes. Previous treatises on harmony had been purely practical; Rameau embraced the new philosophical rationalism, quickly rising to prominence in France as the " Isaac Newton of Music". His fame subsequently spread throughout all Europe, and his Treatise became

750-526: A few cantatas ; a few motets for large chorus; some pieces for solo harpsichord or harpsichord accompanied by other instruments; and, finally, his works for the stage, to which he dedicated the last thirty years of his career almost exclusively. Like most of his contemporaries, Rameau often reused melodies that had been particularly successful, but never without meticulously adapting them; they are not simple transcriptions. Besides, no borrowings have been found from other composers, although his earliest works show

875-502: A great reputation, and it was followed in 1726 by his Nouveau système de musique théorique . In 1724 and 1729 (or 1730), he also published two more collections of harpsichord pieces. Rameau took his first tentative steps into composing stage music when the writer Alexis Piron asked him to provide songs for his popular comic plays written for the Paris Fairs. Four collaborations followed, beginning with L'endriague in 1723, but none of

1000-520: A knight of the Ordre de Saint-Michel. But he did not change his way of life, keeping his worn-out clothes, his single pair of shoes, and his old furniture. After his death, it was discovered that he possessed only one dilapidated single-keyboard harpsichord in his rooms in Rue des Bons-Enfants, yet he also had a bag containing 1691 gold louis . Rameau's music is characterised by the exceptional technical knowledge of

1125-582: A part of the seasonal Parisian fairs, especially the Foire Saint-Germain and the Foire Saint-Laurent. They included farces, tightrope acts, acrobatics, and marionettes, and also included music, such as vaudevilles and popular songs. The audiences were diverse, from all levels of society, and the presentations were given on makeshift stages. However, with the establishment in 1672 of King Louis XIV 's Académie royale de Musique (popularly known as

1250-475: A part today's ideology of dance. For example, his idea that a teacher should encourage students to profit from his or her own talents rather than to imitate a teacher or the style of a popular dancer is a present ideology of dance. Noverre did receive criticism from many of his prominent ballet contemporaries, however his theories have survived longer than any of his ballets, which have not been reproduced for at least two centuries (Lynham 127). Lettres sur la danse

1375-568: A performer. Her role as a creative choreographer, and progressive innovator was not only ignored during her lifetime, but it has failed to have been recognized by historians of the dance arts even to this day. Blanked for her virtuosic movements and expressive talents, Sallé laid the foundations for which Noverre was able to move forward. Her choreographic work in Pygmalion brought forth a combination of expressive gestures and dance movements to mediate its narrative. Although historians have grappled with

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1500-579: A reputation for her “delicate grace and expressive mime” abilities. Sallé's London season of 1733-34 at Covent Garden saw her two pantomimes—Pygmalion and Bacchus and Ariadne—which were both staged in the spring of 1734. Additionally, she collaborated with the naturalised British composer George Frideric Handel during his 1734-35 London Opera season during which her pantomimes became a forerunner of Noverre's ballet d'action--. When she returned to Paris in 1735, she choreographed and danced in scenes for Jean-Philippe Rameau's Opera-ballets. Although she retired from

1625-590: A scheming musician, Jeanne-Thérèse Goermans , as his mistress. The daughter of harpsichord maker Jacques Goermans , she went by the name of Madame de Saint-Aubin , and her opportunistic husband pushed her into the arms of the rich financier. She had La Poupelinière engage the services of the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz , who succeeded Rameau after a breach developed between Rameau and his patron. By then, however, Rameau no longer needed La Poupelinière's financial support and protection. Rameau pursued his activities as

1750-440: A soul, and be the best dancers in the world." Noverre specifically dealt with seven major points in his treatise: Noverre's Les Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets had lasting impact on ballet ideology as his text has been printed in almost every European language and his name is one of the most frequently quoted in the literature of dance (Lynham 13). Many of his theories have been implemented in dance classes today and remain

1875-572: A substantial new theatre for the company of the Foire Saint-Laurent in 1752. The theatre was later installed in a wing of the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs on the rue Bergère, where it was used by the Opéra in 1781, and then as the first concert hall of the Paris Conservatory , which was founded on the same site in 1795. The new theatre was especially important, as it enabled the company to perform at times when

2000-594: A theorist and composer until his death. He lived with his wife and two of his children in his large suite of rooms in Rue des Bons-Enfants, which he would leave every day, lost in thought, to take a solitary walk in the nearby gardens of the Palais-Royal or the Tuileries. Sometimes he would meet the young writer Chabanon , who noted some of Rameau's disillusioned confidential remarks: "Day by day, I'm acquiring more good taste, but I no longer have any genius" and "The imagination

2125-447: Is also credited with writing the libretto of Rameau's final work, Les Boréades (c. 1763). Many Rameau specialists have regretted that the collaboration with Houdar de la Motte never took place, and that the Samson project with Voltaire came to nothing because the librettists Rameau did work with were second-rate. He made his acquaintance of most of them at La Poupelinière 's salon, at

2250-813: Is commonly heard in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham by the Rowland Emett timepiece, the Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator . Emett quoted that Rameau made music for his school and the shopping centre without him knowing it. Rameau's 1722 Treatise on Harmony initiated a revolution in music theory. Rameau posited the discovery of the "fundamental law" or what he referred to as the "fundamental bass" of all Western music. Heavily influenced by new Cartesian modes of thought and analysis, Rameau's methodology incorporated mathematics, commentary, analysis and

2375-453: Is exceptionally small and his organ works nonexistent. Judging by the evidence, it was not his favourite field, but rather, simply a way of making reasonable money. Rameau's few religious compositions are nevertheless remarkable and compare favourably to the works of specialists in the area. Only four motets have been attributed to Rameau with any certainty: Deus noster refugium , In convertendo , Quam dilecta , and Laboravi . The cantata

2500-456: Is worn out in my old head; it's not wise at this age wanting to practise arts that are nothing but imagination." Rameau composed prolifically in the late 1740s and early 1750s. After that, his rate of productivity dropped off, probably due to old age and ill health, although he was still able to write another comic opera, Les Paladins , in 1760. That as due to be followed by a final tragédie en musique, Les Boréades but, for unknown reasons,

2625-593: The philosophes , who only paid attention to its content and who either would not or could not listen to the sound it made. The incomprehension Rameau received from his contemporaries stopped him from repeating such daring experiments as the second Trio des Parques in Hippolyte et Aricie , which he was forced to remove after a handful of performances because the singers had been either unable or unwilling to execute it correctly. Rameau's musical works may be divided into four distinct groups, which differ greatly in importance:

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2750-544: The Pièces de clavecin en concerts (1741), which some musicologists consider the pinnacle of French Baroque chamber music. Adopting a formula successfully employed by Mondonville a few years earlier, Rameau fashioned these pieces differently from trio sonatas in that the harpsichord is not simply there as basso continuo to accompany melody instruments (violin, flute, viol) but as equal partner in "concert" with them. Rameau claimed that this music would be equally satisfying played on

2875-560: The French Revolution reduced him to poverty. He died on 19 October 1810 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye . Noverre's friends included Voltaire , Mozart , Frederick the Great and David Garrick (who called him "the Shakespeare of the dance"). The ballets of which he was most proud were his La Toilette de Vénus , Les Jalousies du sérail , L'Amour corsaire and Le Jaloux sans rival . Besides

3000-415: The French Revolution , Rameau's did not. By the end of the 18th century, his operas had vanished from the repertoire. For most of the 19th century, Rameau's music remained unplayed, known only by reputation. Hector Berlioz investigated Castor et Pollux and particularly admired the aria "Tristes apprêts", but "whereas the modern listener readily perceives the common ground with Berlioz' music, he himself

3125-506: The Lettres sur la danse , Noverre wrote Observations sur la construction d'une nouvelle salle de l'Opéra (1781); Lettres sur Garrick écrites à Voltaire (1801); and Lettre à un artiste sur les fêtes publiques (1801). In 1774 King Louis XV died and Noverre's dear friend Marie-Antoinette became the Queen of France. Marie-Antoinette did not forget about her dear Dance Master, and appointed Noverre to

3250-580: The Revue Musicorum , X. Accueil Op%C3%A9ra-Comique The Opéra-Comique ( French pronunciation: [ɔpeʁa kɔmik] ) is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs . In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne . It was also called

3375-447: The Société du Caveau  [ fr ] , or at the house of the comte de Livry, all meeting places for leading cultural figures of the day. Not one of his librettists managed to produce a libretto on the same artistic level as Rameau's music: the plots were often overly complex or unconvincing. But this was standard for the genre, and is probably part of its charm. The versification, too,

3500-581: The Théâtre-Italien up to about 1793, when it again became most commonly known as the Opéra-Comique. Today the company's official name is Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique , and its theatre, with a capacity of around 1,248 seats, sometimes referred to as the Salle Favart (the third on this site), is located at Place Boïeldieu in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris , not far from the Palais Garnier , one of

3625-412: The 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout Europe . He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked by

3750-569: The 1730s are among Rameau's most highly regarded works. However, the composer followed them with six years of silence, during which the only work he produced was a new version of Dardanus (1744). The reason for the interval in the composer's creative life is unknown, although it is possible he had a falling-out with the authorities at the Académie royale de la musique. The year 1745 was a turning point in Rameau's career. He received several commissions from

3875-530: The Académie Royale de Musique on 1 October 1733. It was immediately recognised as the most significant opera to appear in France since the death of Lully , though its reception drew controversy. Some, such as the composer André Campra , were stunned by its originality and wealth of invention; others found its harmonic innovations discordant and saw the work as an attack on the French musical tradition. The two camps,

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4000-540: The Académie royale de musique: three tragédies en musique and two opéra-ballets that still form the core of his repertoire. After the interval of 1740 to 1744, he became the official court musician, and for the most part, composed pieces intended to entertain, with plenty of dance music emphasising sensuality and an idealised pastoral atmosphere. In his last years, Rameau returned to a renewed version of his early style in Les Paladins and Les Boréades . His Zoroastre

4125-694: The French Enlightenment. Noverre's treatise on dancing and theater expressed his aesthetic theories on the production of ballets and his method of teaching ballet. Noverre wrote this text in London in 1756 and published it in 1760 in Lyon, France. He began his research for his essays in Drury Lane , London, where he choreographed for his own troupe of dancers at the Theatre Royal under the direction of David Garrick. It

4250-645: The French stage only by assimilating the latter's beautiful works and making them his own." Camille Saint-Saëns (by editing and publishing the Pièces in 1895) and Paul Dukas were two other important French musicians who gave practical championship to Rameau's music in their day, but interest in Rameau petered out again, and it was not until the late 20th century that a serious effort was made to revive his works. Over half of Rameau's operas have now been recorded, in particular by conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner , William Christie , and Marc Minkowski . One of his pieces

4375-721: The French: Noverre, His Circle, and the English Lettres sur la Danse (Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon, 2014). Although snippets appear in Letters on Dancing and Ballets (London: Beaumont, 1930), by Cyril Beaumont , the Burden and Thorp transcription is the only complete English translation. The essays in the volume, which cover a number of aspects of Noverre's life and career in depth are as follows: Jennifer Thorp: From Les fêtes chinoises to Agamemnon revenged : Ange Goudar as commentator on

4500-515: The Italian tradition were increasingly looking towards Rameau as a way of reforming their own leading operatic genre, opera seria . Tommaso Traetta produced two operas setting translations of Rameau libretti that show the French composer's influence, Ippolito ed Aricia (1759) and I Tintaridi (based on Castor et Pollux , 1760). Traetta had been advised by Count Francesco Algarotti , a leading proponent of reform according to French models; Algarotti

4625-510: The Lyon Opera. His lighter, colorful pantomime ballets like Les Caprices de Galathée , La Toilette de Vénus , and Les Jalousies du sérail , received great success. Noverre was most immediately influenced by Jean-Philippe Rameau , David Garrick , and Marie Sallé . Rameau was a very influential French composer and music theorist, and Noverre was inspired by his dance music that combined programmatic and strongly individual elements. David Garrick

4750-512: The Opéra and the Comédie-Française , and restrictions were again more strictly enforced. The troupes at the Foire Saint-Germain and the Foire Saint-Laurent received warnings from the police in 1699 and 1706. Although in 1708 the fairground entrepreneurs Charles Alard and Maurice were able to purchase from the Opéra's director Pierre Guyenet the right to use singers, dancers, musicians, and sets, this did not last as Guyenet died in 1712, leaving

4875-426: The Opéra with a debt in the neighborhood of 400,000 livres. Alard resorted to giving silent performances with the actors' speeches displayed to the audience on large cue cards. The players next tried including vaudeville airs via audience participation: the musicians would play a popular tune, and the spectators would sing, while the actors remained silent. This was further enhanced when the words began to be displayed to

5000-684: The Opéra) under Jean-Baptiste Lully , the use of music by fair troupes was significantly curtailed. When the Italian players at the Hôtel de Bourgogne were banished from Paris in 1697 for performing their comedy La fausse prude ("The False Prude"), which satirized the King's wife, Madame de Maintenon , the fair theatres were quick to adopt much of the Italians' repertory, which included parodies of operas and tragedies. The fair theatres were soon viewed as competition by

5125-616: The Opéra-Comique also offers relayed performances to cinemas (around France and in Europe); Carmen in June 2009 and Béatrice et Bénédict in March 2010. In 2013 an opera critic was moved to write that of Paris lyric theatres "over the past seven seasons, [the Opéra-Comique] has best succeeded in establishing a particular identity and achieving consistent quality in its productions". In the summer of 2015

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5250-526: The Opéra-Comique, of which 222 were either world premieres (136) or the first performance in Paris (86). In June 1936 a broadcast of Les Contes d'Hoffmann was disrupted by the start of a company sit-in demanding the director's resignation. In 1939 financial problems resulted in the Opéra-Comique being merged with the Opéra to become the 'Réunion des Théatres Lyriques Nationaux'. Notable premieres during this period included Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tiresias (1947) and La Voix humaine (1959). However, by

5375-598: The Opéra. Although the company of the Opéra-Comique was disbanded (followed 20 years later by the closure of the opéra comique classes at the Paris Conservatoire ), from 1978 works were staged again at the theatre, both from its traditional repertoire ( Le médecin malgré lui and Werther ) as well as more adventurous repertoire: La chatte anglaise in 1984, Denisov's L'Écume des Jours , as well as productions with international stars, including Jessye Norman as Dido in 1984. While still battling for survival

5500-547: The Paris Opera Ballet created ballets that were an isolated event within Opera lacking meaningful connection with the main theme of the Opera. He criticized the Paris Opera Ballet use of the mask because it restricted the dancer from showing facial expressions that could bear meaning on their characters. Noverre devoted the whole of his Ninth Letter to the subject of masks and wrote, " Destroy the masks and" he argued, "we shall gain

5625-464: The Paris Opera Ballet, such as stereotypical and cumbersome costumes, and old-fashioned musical styles and choreography. Noverre also discussed the methods for training dancers such as encouraging a student to capitalize on his or her own talents (The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet 699). Most of Noverre's criticisms of dance in his book were directed towards the Paris Opera Ballet because he felt

5750-494: The Paris Opera Ballet. Sallé had studied in Paris with Françoise Prévost, who was a known predecessor of dramatizing ballet with her virtuosic acting and expressive performance. * Salle had studied in Paris with Francoise Prevost who was an established predecessor of the dramatic style of ballet demonstrated through her virtuosic acting and expressive performances. Sallé made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1727 where she established

5875-400: The Paris Opera. This was Noverre's shining moment, but the loyalty and backing of Marie-Antoinette could switch. In 1779 Noverre was unseated from his position because Dauberval, Maximilien Gardel and Mlle Guimard gathered prominent people and poisoned them against Noverre. However, Noverre didn't leave the Opera until 1781. Noverre's fitting effect on the Paris ballet world would be preserved by

6000-457: The Salle Favart on 25 May 1887 resulted in the death of 84 people by asphyxiation. The building was destroyed and the director Léon Carvalho was forced to resign, although later he was acquitted of blame and resumed the helm at the company from 1891 to 1897. The third Salle Favart (architect Louis Bernier ) was officially opened in the presence of President Félix Faure on 7 December 1898. As

6125-424: The attention of the arts establishment. At the start of the 1960s Stéphane Wolff, claimed that the theatre could regain its independence: "well-managed, it could again become what it was for so long, the most active and therefore the leading lyric stage in France". However, in 1972 the Opéra-Comique company was closed (although the theatre itself received visiting productions) and its government grant added to that of

6250-418: The audience on a large banner. In 1713 and 1714 several of the fair troupes were able to conclude a new series of agreements with the creditors of the deceased Guyenet, who at this point had become the managers of the rather expensive Opéra. For an annual fee the troupes obtained the right to perform light comedies interspersed with songs and dances and to use sets and theatre machines. They were also given

6375-550: The ballets of Jean-Georges Noverre; Samantha Owens : "Just as great as Noverre": the ballet composer Florian Johann Deller (1729–73) and music at the Württemberg court; Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell: Noverre in Milan: a turning point; Adeline Mueller: A peep into Mozart and Le Picq's Serraglio (Milan, 1772): Noverre's tragic reworking of a comic ballet; Edward Nye: Outrageous dancing and respectable Noverre; Bruce Alan Brown: Weiß und Rosenfarb :

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6500-402: The career of Claude-Bénigne Balbastre in the capital. Furthermore, he gave his daughter Marie-Louise a considerable dowry when she became a Visitandine nun in 1750, and he paid a pension to one of his sisters when she became ill. Financial security came late to him, following the success of his stage works and the grant of a royal pension. A few months before his death, he was ennobled and made

6625-408: The classical sense of ending happily or the modern one of being funny; the term covered a much wider category of work. Notable composers in the history of the Opéra-Comique include Auber , Halévy , Berlioz and Bizet . After Rossini's arrival in Paris, new works at the Opéra-Comique took in Italian vocal style and techniques, leading to greater virtuosity, although "the repertory as a whole stood as

6750-422: The conductor of La Poupelinière's private orchestra, which was of an extremely high quality. He held the post for 22 years, and was succeeded by Johann Stamitz and then François-Joseph Gossec . La Poupelinière's salon enabled Rameau to meet some of the leading cultural figures of the day, including Voltaire , who soon began collaborating with the composer. Their first project, the tragédie en musique Samson ,

6875-500: The court for works to celebrate the French victory at the Battle of Fontenoy and the marriage of the Dauphin to Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain . Rameau produced his most important comic opera, Platée , as well as two collaborations with Voltaire: the opéra-ballet Le temple de la gloire and the comédie-ballet La princesse de Navarre . They gained Rameau official recognition; he

7000-433: The differences between opéra and opéra comique faded, the two main houses in Paris came more into competition, although the Salle Favart saw the premieres of more innovative works: Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue (1907), Ravel's L'heure espagnole (1911), and French premieres of works by Puccini and Falla. Between 1900 and 1950, 401 works by 206 different composers were performed at

7125-443: The duality of Sallé's role in dance history, it is precisely these aspects that deem her the true inventor of the ballet d'action that was to sweep the late eighteenth-century stage under Noverre's creative efforts and leadership. In addition to her performance and choreographic work, Sallé worked to create reforms within the rigid ballet world predating Noverre. Sallé revolutionized ballet by her combination of artistic dance movement,

7250-404: The embittered Rousseau nursed a grudge against Rameau for the rest of his life. Rousseau was a major participant in the second great quarrel that erupted over Rameau's work, the so-called Querelle des Bouffons of 1752–54, which pitted French tragédie en musique against Italian opera buffa . This time, Rameau was accused of being out of date and his music too complicated in comparison with

7375-406: The end of 1745, Voltaire and Rameau, who were busy on other works, commissioned Rousseau to turn La Princesse de Navarre into a new opera, with linking recitative , called Les fêtes de Ramire . Rousseau then claimed the two had stolen the credit for the words and music he had contributed, though musicologists have been able to identify almost nothing of the piece as Rousseau's work. Nevertheless,

7500-663: The end of Noverrian ballet in Vienna and the beginnings of the Wienerischer Musenalmanach; Michael Burden: Regular meetings: Noverre and Gallini in London, 1756-1795; Anna Karin Ståhle: Jean-Georges Noverre applying for jobs. To mark the bicentenary of the death of Jean-Georges Noverre, two academic meetings were held which explored aspects of biography, dance, and performance. The first was ‘Celebrating Jean-Georges Noverre 1727-1810: his world, and beyond’, which

7625-508: The end of the Second World War, the Opéra-Comique's best artists, assets and repertory had been gradually taken from it to enrich the Opéra. The Opéra-Comique discovered some fresh energy in 1950s, restaging Roméo et Juliette , Orphée et Eurydice , Le roi malgré lui and Les noces de Jeannette and introducing Bluebeard's Castle , Landowski's Les Adieux and Dallapiccola 's Volo di Notte to attract new audiences and keep

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7750-424: The experiments of a theorist and musical innovator ("L'enharmonique", "Les Cyclopes"), which had a marked influence on Louis-Claude Daquin , Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer and Jacques Duphly . Rameau's suites are grouped in the traditional way, by key. The first set of dances (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Les Trois Mains, Fanfairenette, La Triomphante, Gavotte et 6 doubles) is centred on A major and A minor, while

7875-457: The expressive use of gestures matched to the music, and her redesign of costumes and stage scenery in unique ways that broke new ground in the dance world. The simple act of omitting the Mask and the reworking of costumes was later picked up by Noverre in his Les Lettres sur la danse et sur les ballets. Sallé's shifting public image, influenced the reception of her costume reforms. She was performing at

8000-588: The fair was not in operation. Monnet's friend Jean-Joseph Vadé wrote the libretto for Les troqueurs , first staged in July 1753 and advertised as a translation of an Italian work. The music was actually original, composed by Antoine Dauvergne , and began a period of new works in a more Italian style in which music played a much more significant role. Composers for the company during this period included Egidio Duni , François-André Danican Philidor and Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny . The dramatist Michel-Jean Sedaine wrote

8125-635: The first performances of such important French works as Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust (1846), Thomas' Mignon (1866), and Bizet's Carmen (1875). In the latter part of the century the theatre revived works it had made its own, restaged works from the repertoire of the Théâtre Lyrique (which had closed in 1872) and premiered new pieces, such as Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann (1881); Delibes' Lakmé (1883); Massenet's Manon (1884), Esclarmonde (1889), and Werther (French premiere in 1893); and Charpentier's Louise (1900). A fire at

8250-744: The first time. There, in 1706, he published his earliest-known compositions: the harpsichord works that make up his first book of Pièces de Clavecin , which show the influence of his friend Louis Marchand . In 1709, he moved back to Dijon to take over his father's job as organist in the main church. The contract was for six years, but Rameau left before then and took up similar posts in Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand . During that period, he composed motets for church performance as well as secular cantatas . In 1722, he returned to Paris for good, and there he published his most important work of music theory, Traité de l'harmonie ( Treatise on Harmony ). That soon won him

8375-2316: The following list is compiled from Wild, Levin, and Wolff. 1829–1830 Paul-Auguste Ducis 1830, July – 5 August, Jean-François Boursault, Alexandre Huvé de Garel 1830–1831 Alexandre Singier 1831–1832 Émile Lubbert 1832, 14 January – 1 June, Émile Laurent 1832–1834 Paul Dutreich 1834–1845 François-Louis Crosnier , Alphonse Cerfbeer (administrator) 1845–1848 Alexandre Basset 1848–1857 Émile Perrin 1857–1860 Nestor Roqueplan 1860–1862 Alfred Beaumont 1862, 1 February – 20 December, Émile Perrin 1862–1870 Adolphe de Leuven , Eugène Ritt 1870–1874 Adolphe de Leuven, Camille du Locle 1874-1876 Camille du Locle 1876-1887 Léon Carvalho 1887, May to December, Jules Barbier 1888-1891 Louis Paravey 1891-1897 Léon Carvalho 1898-1913 Albert Carré 1914-1918 Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi , Émile and Vincent Isola 1919-1925 Albert Carré, Émile and Vincent Isola 1925-1931 Louis Masson and Georges Ricou 1931-1932 Louis Masson 1932-1936 Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi 1936-1939 14 member committee presided by Antoine Mariotte 1939-1940 Henri Busser 1941-1944 Max d'Ollone 1944 Lucien Muratore 1944 (Liberation) 4 member committee: Roger Désormière , Pierre Jamin, Louis Musy and Émile Rousseau 1945-1946 Albert Wolff 1946-1948 Henry Malherbe 1948-1951 Emmanuel Bondeville 1952-1953 Louis Beydts 1990-1994 Thierry Fouquet 1994-1999 Pierre Médecin 2000-2007 Jérôme Savary 2007-2015 Jérôme Deschamps 2015-2021 Olivier Mantei . 2021-2026 Louis Langrée 1849-1868 Théophile Tilmant 1868-1876 Adolphe Deloffre 1876 Charles Constantin 1876-1877 Charles Lamoureux 1877-1898 Jules Danbé 1898-1904 André Messager 1904-1906 Alexandre Luigini 1906-1908 François Ruhlmann 1909 Gustave Doret 1910-1913 François Ruhlmann 1914-1919 Paul Vidal 1919-1921 André Messager 1921-1924 Albert Wolff 1924-1925 Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht 1925-1932 Maurice Frigara 1932-1936 Paul Bastide 1936-1944 Eugène Bigot 1947-1953 André Cluytens Frédéric Blasius Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau ( French: [ʒɑ̃filip ʁamo] ; ( 1683-09-25 ) 25 September 1683 – ( 1764-09-12 ) 12 September 1764)

8500-518: The following works which have each been performed more than 1,000 times by the company: Cavalleria Rusticana , Le chalet , La dame blanche , Le domino noir , La fille du régiment , Lakmé , Manon , Mignon , Les noces de Jeannette , Le pré aux clercs , Tosca , La bohème , Werther and Carmen , the last having been performed more than 2,500 times. Since the Middle Ages popular light theatrical entertainments had been

8625-427: The harpsichord alone, but the claim is not wholly convincing because he took the trouble to transcribe five of them himself, those the lack of other instruments would show the least. After 1733 Rameau dedicated himself mostly to opera. On a strictly musical level, 18th-century French Baroque opera is richer and more varied than contemporary Italian opera, especially in the place given to choruses and dances but also in

8750-427: The impresario Jean Monnet paid 12,000 livres to the Opéra for the right to run the Opéra-Comique, He renovated the theatre and brought together a group of highly talented creative artists, including, besides Favart, who also worked as a stage director, the comedian Préville , the stage designer François Boucher , and the ballet master Dupré and his pupil Jean-Georges Noverre . Jean-Philippe Rameau may also have been

8875-582: The influence of other music. Rameau's reworkings of his own material are numerous; e.g., in Les Fêtes d'Hébé , we find L'Entretien des Muses , the Musette, and the Tambourin, taken from the 1724 book of harpsichord pieces, as well as an aria from the cantata Le Berger Fidèle . For at least 26 years, Rameau was a professional organist in the service of religious institutions, and yet the body of sacred music he composed

9000-565: The leader of the orchestra. The company was, however, too successful, and the Opéra refused to renew Monnet's privilege in 1745. After working briefly in Lyon, and mounting unsuccessful productions in Dijon (1746) and London (1749), he was able to repurchase the Opéra-Comique privilège in December 1751 and remained its director until 1757. During his second period as director, Monnet continued to work with Favart and Noverre, and Boucher designed and built

9125-466: The most important positions of influence and power in the theatrical world, as well as the political world. Going against the grain of a woman's role being limited to interpret the dance creations of men, Sallé broke barriers to stage and perform her own creations. One cannot recognize the work of Noverre's innovations without including the paradigm shifts that grew out of her life and work. Noverre's text demanded an end to repressive traditions peculiar to

9250-399: The music has survived. On 25 February 1726, Rameau married the 19-year-old Marie-Louise Mangot, who came from a musical family from Lyon, and was a good singer and instrumentalist. The couple had four children, two boys and two girls, and the marriage is said to have been a happy one. In spite of his fame as a music theorist, Rameau had trouble finding a post as an organist in Paris. It

9375-480: The musical continuity that arises from the respective relationships between the arias and the recitatives . Another essential difference: whereas Italian opera gave a starring role to female sopranos and castrati , French opera had no use for the latter. The Italian opera of Rameau's day ( opera seria , opera buffa ) was essentially divided into musical sections ( da capo arias, duets, trios, etc.) and sections that were spoken or almost spoken ( recitativo secco ). It

9500-482: The national destiny of France." In 1894, composer Vincent d'Indy founded the Schola Cantorum to promote French national music; the society put on several revivals of works by Rameau. Among the audience was Claude Debussy , who especially cherished Castor et Pollux , revived in 1903: " Gluck 's genius was deeply rooted in Rameau's works... a detailed comparison allows us to affirm that Gluck could replace Rameau on

9625-431: The opera was never produced and did not get a proper staging unil the late 20th century. Rameau died on 12 September 1764 after suffering from a fever, thirteen days before his 81st birthday. At his bedside, he objected to a song being sung. His last words were, "What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune." He was buried in the church of St. Eustache , Paris on the same day of his death. Although

9750-404: The operatic reforms advocated in the preface to Gluck's Alceste were already present in Rameau's works. Rameau had used accompanied recitatives, and the overtures in his later operas reflected the action to come, so when Gluck arrived in Paris in 1774 to produce a series of six French operas, he could be seen as continuing in the tradition of Rameau. Nevertheless, while Gluck's popularity survived

9875-462: The physical and emotional expression of the dancers. He was next engaged by Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg , and later Austrian Empress Maria Theresa , until 1774. In 1776, he was appointed maître des ballets of the Paris Opera at the request of Queen Marie Antoinette . He returned to Vienna in Spring of 1776 to stage ballets there, but in June 1776 he returned again to Paris. He regained this post until

10000-411: The production of his tragic ballet Jason et Médée in 1763. In 1787, Pierre Gardel inherited the throne and Paris Opera, and carried out Noverre's ideas on costume and thoughts on ballet pantomime. (Chazin-Bennhaum) He composed Les Caprices de Galathée , for example, and garbed his dancers in tiger skins and shoes made of tree bark. His naturalist attitude towards costume placed him in the front rank of

10125-518: The proliferation of opera houses after the Law of 1791 which removed restrictions on the opening of theatres, there was competition with the Théâtre Feydeau , which was resolved in 1801 by merger. By 1807 Napoleon had reduced theatrical freedoms, and the Opéra-Comique was named one of four primary theatres in Paris. French opéra comique , in the 19th century at least, was not necessarily "comic" either in

10250-440: The public stage in 1741, she continued to influence the dance community through her coaching and choreographic innovations at Opéra-Comique in 1743, which happens to be when Noverre made his debut. Social and economic factors, in what was unequivocally a “man’s world” allowed Noverre to bring forth his ideologies surrounding the evolution of dance. By contrast, the recognition given to Sallé was largely limited to her significance as

10375-409: The relatively standardised suite form, which had reached its apogee in the first decade of the 18th century and successive collections of pieces by Louis Marchand , Gaspard Le Roux , Louis-Nicolas Clérambault , Jean-François Dandrieu , Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre , Charles Dieupart and Nicolas Siret . Rameau and Couperin had different styles, and it seems they did not know one another: Couperin

10500-507: The remaining pieces (Les tricoteuses, L'Indifferente, Première Menuet, Deuxième Menuet, La Poule, Les Triolets, Les Sauvages, L'Enharmonique, L'Egiptienne [sic]) are centred around G major and G minor. Rameau's second and third collections appeared in 1724 and 1727. After these he composed only one piece for the harpsichord, the eight-minute "La Dauphine" of 1747, while the very short "Les petits marteaux" (c. 1750) has also been attributed to him. During his semiretirement (1740 to 1744) he wrote

10625-565: The right to use the name "Opéra-Comique". The first work officially given that designation was Télémaque (a parody of the opera by André Cardinal Destouches ), which was first performed by the Théâtre de la Foire Saint-Germain in 1715. The words were by Alain-René Lesage , the music was arranged by Jean-Claude Gillier, and the orchestra consisted of 15 players. Lesage authored many of the early opéras comiques , and composers like Gillier worked primarily as arrangers of existing music. In 1716 one of

10750-549: The simplicity and "naturalness" of a work like Pergolesi's La serva padrona . In the mid-1750s, Rameau criticised Rousseau's contributions to the musical articles in the Encyclopédie , which led to a quarrel with the leading philosophes d'Alembert and Diderot . As a result, Jean-François Rameau became a character in Diderot's then-unpublished dialogue, Le neveu de Rameau ( Rameau's Nephew ). In 1753, La Poupelinière took

10875-462: The so-called Lullyistes and the Rameauneurs, fought a pamphlet war over the issue for the rest of the decade. Just before that, Rameau had made the acquaintance of the powerful financier Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière , who became his patron until 1753. La Poupelinière's mistress (and later, wife), Thérèse des Hayes , was Rameau's pupil and a great admirer of his music. In 1731, Rameau became

11000-463: The supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, and he was later attacked as an "establishment" composer by those who favoured Italian opera during the controversy known as the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s. Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it

11125-508: The text of his first opera for the company, Le diable à quatre , in 1756. It premiered at the Fair Saint-Laurent on 19 August with verses for the ariettes provided by Pierre Baurans and with music parodying a variety of composers including Vincenzo Legrenzio Ciampi , Duni, Baldassare Galuppi , and Giuseppe Scarlatti , and also included music attributed to the French composers Jean-Louis Laurette and Philidor. Christoph Willibald Gluck

11250-555: The theatre closed for 18 months for major refurbishment including the costume department, the salle Bizet, and the hall Boieldieu. During the closure a webopera and a fan zone at the UEFA Cup where spectators were invited to sing well-known opéra-comique songs took place. After the works, the theatre reopened in 2017, with the first stage production since the composer's death of Marais's Alcione (on 25 April 2017) with Jordi Savall conducting Le Concert des Nations . The information in

11375-450: The theatre hosted one of the major baroque revivals: Atys , with Les Arts Florissants in 1987. The company regained its autonomy and returned, albeit with an inadequate budget, to the Salle Favart in 1990. Although its budget amounted to less than most provincial French opera houses, the first new director of the independent Opéra-Comique, Thierry Fouquet, attempted to run a balanced programme but handed over in 1994 to Pierre Médecin, who

11500-486: The theatres of the Paris Opéra . The musicians and others associated with the Opéra-Comique have made important contributions to operatic history and tradition in France and to French opera. Its current mission is to reconnect with its history and discover its unique repertoire to ensure production and dissemination of operas for the wider public. Mainstays of the repertory at the Opéra-Comique during its history have included

11625-463: The time when the dancers’ costumes were not realistic. Noverre's notion of costume reform clearly stemmed from his association with her. Although he is recognized for his rejection of the dancer's mask, it is most probable that his action would have been motivated by Sallé's “noble, expressive and spiritual countenance,” which inspired particular comment in his Letter. When contemplating the speed of Noverre's rapid shifts in style, one has to consider all

11750-524: The troupes' leaders, Catherine Vanderberg purchased additional rights and began to present more original works by authors, such as Jacques-Philippe d'Orneval , Alexis Piron , and Louis Fuzelier . In these early days the role of librettist for the theatre was more important than that of the composer – and pre-eminent among them for more than forty years was Charles-Simon Favart , who made his first contribution in 1734 and achieved his first important success with La chercheuse d'esprit in 1741. In 1743

11875-470: The week except for major festivals. Boxes could be hired for a year at a time, and many subscribers were wealthy. Before 1848 a third of subscribers were of the aristocracy, but after then it became an especially middle class theatre. After 1848 Émile Perrin sought to revive the repertoire with more literary and ambitious works. Until 1864 its repertoire was still prescribed, by statute, to have spoken dialogue between musical numbers. The Opéra-Comique staged

12000-414: The work Sallé created before him. Given her background and gender—with all its discriminatory limitations—Sallé's achievements were nothing short of incredible. Given the continuing battle for gender equality in the contemporary world of both business and the business of the arts world, her accomplishments are even more extraordinary recognizing that they were done in the 18th century, a time when men held all

12125-400: Was a French composer and music theorist . Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the harpsichord , alongside François Couperin . Little is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until

12250-411: Was a genre within the reach of a composer who was still unknown. Musicologists can only guess at the dates of Rameau's six surviving cantatas, and the names of the librettists are unknown. Along with François Couperin , Rameau was a master of the 18th-century French school of harpsichord music, and both made a break with the style of the first generation of harpsichordists whose compositions adhered to

12375-467: Was a highly successful genre in the early 18th century. The French cantata, which should not be confused with the Italian or the German cantata, was "invented" in 1706 by the poet Jean-Baptiste Rousseau and soon taken up by many famous composers of the day, such as Montéclair , Campra , and Clérambault . Cantatas were Rameau's first contact with dramatic music. The modest forces the cantata required meant it

12500-405: Was a major influence on the most important "reformist" composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck . Gluck's three Italian reform operas of the 1760s— Orfeo ed Euridice , Alceste , and Paride ed Elena —reveal a knowledge of Rameau's works. For instance, both Orfeo and the 1737 version of Castor et Pollux open with the funeral of one of the leading characters who later comes back to life. Many of

12625-529: Was abandoned because an opera on a religious theme by Voltaire—a notorious critic of the Church—was likely to be banned by the authorities. Meanwhile, Rameau had introduced his new musical style into the lighter genre of the opéra-ballet with the highly successful Les Indes galantes . It was followed by two tragédies en musique , Castor et Pollux (1737) and Dardanus (1739), and another opéra-ballet , Les fêtes d'Hébé (also 1739). All those operas of

12750-429: Was an actor and theatre director at the Theatre Royal. Noverre was inspired by his talent for "histrionics" and vivid mime work where Noverre wanted to shake from the traditional forms of Ballet. (The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet 695). With the content that follows it is imperative to closer examine the profound influence of Marie Sallé on Jean-George Noverre. Sallé and Noverre had an intertwining history that began at

12875-532: Was born on 25 September 1683 in Dijon , and baptised the same day. His father, Jean, worked as an organist in several churches around Dijon, and his mother, Claudine Demartinécourt, was the daughter of a notary . The couple had eleven children, five girls and six boys, of whom Jean-Philippe was the seventh. Rameau was taught music before he could read or write. He was educated at the Jesuit college at Godrans in Dijon, but he

13000-446: Was difficult to understand, just like his handwriting, which was never fluent. As a man, he was secretive, solitary, irritable, proud of his own achievements (more as a theorist than as a composer), brusque with those who contradicted him, and quick to anger. It is difficult to imagine him among the leading wits, including Voltaire (to whom he bears more than a passing physical resemblance ), who frequented La Poupelinière's salon; his music

13125-409: Was during the latter that the action progressed while the audience waited for the next aria; on the other hand, the text of the arias was almost entirely buried beneath music whose chief aim was to show off the virtuosity of the singer. Nothing of the kind is to be found in French opera of the day; since Lully, the text had to remain comprehensible—limiting certain techniques such as the vocalise , which

13250-414: Was first performed in 1749. According to one of Rameau's admirers, Cuthbert Girdlestone, this opera has a distinctive place in his works: "The profane passions of hatred and jealousy are rendered more intensely [than in his other works] and with a strong sense of reality." Unlike Lully, who collaborated with Philippe Quinault on almost all his operas, Rameau rarely worked with the same librettist twice. He

13375-557: Was first published in English in 1782, where it was titled The Works of Monsieur Noverre translated from the French . The translator, Parkyns MacMahon, also translated Noverre's ballet Adela of Ponthieu , and was in touch with him while working on The Works of Monsieur Noverre . In 2014, MacMahon's translation was transcribed with commentary by Michael Burden and Jennifer Thorp, and published with eight essays by dance historians and musicologists as The Works of Monsieur Noverre Translated from

13500-401: Was granted the title "Compositeur du Cabinet du Roi" and given a substantial pension. 1745 also saw the beginning of the bitter enmity between Rameau and Jean-Jacques Rousseau . Though best known today as a thinker, Rousseau had ambitions to be a composer. He had written an opera, Les muses galantes (inspired by Rameau's Indes galantes ), but Rameau was unimpressed by this musical tribute. At

13625-424: Was highly demanding and bad-tempered, unable to maintain longstanding partnerships with his librettists, with the exception of Louis de Cahusac , who collaborated with him on several operas, including Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour (1747), Zaïs (1748), Naïs (1749), Zoroastre (1749; revised 1756), La naissance d'Osiris (1754), and Anacréon (the first of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754). He

13750-410: Was his consuming passion. It occupied his entire thinking; Philippe Beaussant calls him a monomaniac. Alexis Piron explained that "His heart and soul were in his harpsichord; once he had shut its lid, there was no one home." Physically, Rameau was tall and exceptionally thin, as can be seen by the sketches we have of him, including a famous portrait by Carmontelle . He had a "loud voice". His speech

13875-421: Was his passport, and it made up for his lack of social graces. His enemies exaggerated his faults, e.g. his supposed miserliness. In fact, it seems that his thriftiness was the result of long years spent in obscurity, when his income was uncertain and scanty, rather than being part of his character, because he could also be generous. He helped his nephew Jean-François when he came to Paris and also helped establish

14000-648: Was in David Garrick's library that Noverre read modern French literature and ancient Latin treatises on pantomime. Noverre was inspired by the pantomimes that he thought stirred up the audience's emotions by the use of expressive movement. He proclaimed in his text that ballet should unfold through dramatic movement, and the movement should express the relationship between the characters. Noverre named this type of ballet, ballet d’action or pantomime ballet (International Dictionary of Ballet 1032). From 1757 to 1760, he produced thirteen new works with composer François Granier at

14125-441: Was invited by Garrick to London, where he remained for two years. Between 1758 and 1760 he produced several ballets at Lyon , and published his Lettres sur la danse et les ballets  [ fr ] . It is from this period that the revolution in the art of the ballet for which Noverre was responsible can be dated. Prior to Noverre, ballets were large spectacles that focused mainly on elaborate costumes and scenery and not on

14250-557: Was later to compose his own music for the work. His version was first given in Laxenburg, Austria, on 28 May 1759. Other settings were later composed for the Opéra-Comique by Bernardo Porta (14 February 1790) and Jean-Pierre Solié (30 November 1809). On 3 February 1762 the Opéra-Comique was merged into the Comédie-Italienne and occupied the Hôtel de Bourgogne , gaining in respectability what it lost in independence. The company

14375-417: Was mediocre, and Rameau often had to have the libretto modified and rewrite the music after the premiere because of the ensuing criticism. This is why we have two versions of Castor et Pollux (1737 and 1754) and three of Dardanus (1739, 1744, and 1760). By the end of his life, Rameau's music had come under attack in France from theorists who favoured Italian models. However, foreign composers working in

14500-469: Was more conscious of the gap which separated them." French humiliation in the Franco-Prussian War brought about a change in Rameau's fortunes. As Rameau biographer Jean Malignon wrote, "...the German victory over France in 1870–71 was the grand occasion for digging up great heroes from the French past. Rameau, like so many others, was flung into the enemy's face to bolster our courage and our faith in

14625-479: Was not a good pupil and disrupted classes with his singing, later claiming that his passion for opera had begun at the age of twelve. Initially intended for the law, Rameau decided he wanted to be a musician, and his father sent him to Italy, where he stayed for a short while in Milan . On his return, he worked as a violinist in travelling companies, and then as an organist in provincial cathedrals, before moving to Paris for

14750-430: Was not until he was approaching 50 that Rameau decided to embark on the operatic career on which his fame as a composer mainly rests. He had already approached writer Antoine Houdar de la Motte for a libretto in 1727, but nothing came of it; he was finally inspired to try his hand at the prestigious genre of tragédie en musique after seeing Montéclair 's Jephté in 1732. Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie premiered at

14875-499: Was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent. The details of Rameau's life are generally obscure, especially concerning his first forty years, before he moved to Paris for good. He was a secretive man, and even his wife knew nothing of his early life, which explains the scarcity of biographical information available. Rameau's early years are particularly obscure. He

15000-596: Was one of the official court musicians; Rameau, fifteen years his junior, achieved fame only after Couperin's death. Rameau published his first book of harpsichord pieces in 1706. (Cf. Couperin, who waited until 1713 before publishing his first "Ordres".) Rameau's music includes pieces in the pure tradition of the French suite: imitative ("Le rappel des oiseaux", "La poule") and characterful ("Les tendres plaintes", "L'entretien des Muses"). But there are also works of pure virtuosity that resemble Domenico Scarlatti ("Les tourbillons", "Les trois mains") as well as pieces that reveal

15125-418: Was renamed to Opéra-Comique by an edict of the king in 1780, although the names Comédie-Italienne and Théâtre Italien were still used frequently by the press and public for many years thereafter. In 1783 the company moved again, into the Salle Favart (architect Jean-François Heurtier ; ca. 1,100 seats) on the site where the current theatre stands. Around that time the works of Grétry featured strongly. With

15250-507: Was reserved for special words such as gloire ("glory") or victoire ("victory"). A subtle equilibrium existed between the more and the less musical parts: melodic recitative on the one hand and arias that were often closer to arioso on the other, alongside virtuoso "ariettes" in the Italian style. This form of continuous music prefigures Wagnerian drama even more than does the "reform" opera of Gluck . Five essential components may be discerned in Rameau's operatic scores: Rameau

15375-596: Was responsible for the centenary season in 1998 with a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande . The loss of private sponsors led to a policy of musical comedy and operetta under Jérôme Savary from 2000. A decree of November 2004 put the theatre on a new basis, stressing the variety of productions it should mount: "de l'opéra baroque à la création contemporaine et le patrimoine de l'Opéra-Comique". It currently mounts 7 or 8 operas or opéra comiques (some of them co-productions), with complementary concerts, recitals and exhibitions, each season. In common with many other opera houses

15500-599: Was the 11th Annual Oxford Dance Symposium on 16–17 April 2010 at New College, Oxford. Some of the papers were included in Burden and Thorp (2014). The second was the ‘Colloque International à l’occasion du bicentenaire de la mort de Noverre’, les jeudi 21, vendredi 22 et samedi 23 octobre 2010, A l’initiative de L’Association pour un Centre de recherches sur les Arts du spectacle aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (ACRAS, société savante), at Centre National de la Danse, 1 rue Victor Hugo – 93500 Pantin, and Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris. The proceedings were published in

15625-478: Was the greatest ballet composer of all times. The genius of his creation rests on one hand on his perfect artistic permeation by folk-dance types, on the other hand on the constant preservation of living contact with the practical requirements of the ballet stage, which prevented an estrangement between the expression of the body from the spirit of absolute music . During the first part of his operatic career (1733–1739), Rameau wrote his great masterpieces destined for

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