The Comedians of the King

The Comedians of the King
Julia Doe
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NZ$ 136.00
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NZ$ 108.80
Hardback
Not defined - 296pg
12 Mar 2021 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9780226743257
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Opera in ancien regime France was an eminently political art, tied to the demands of court spectacle. This was true not only of tragic opera (tragedie lyrique) but also its comic counterpart, opera comique, a theatrical form tracing its roots to the seasonal trade fairs of Paris. While historians have long privileged the genre' s popular origins, opera comique was brought under the protection of the French crown in 1762, thus consolidating a new venue where "official" music was debated and defined. ? In The Comedians of the King, Julia Doe traces the impact of Bourbon patronage on the development of opera comique in the turbulent pre-revolutionary years. This book presents the history of an understudied genre and the institutional structures that supported it, determining how changes in royal sponsorship contributed to the rapid evolution of this lyric form. Drawing on both musical and archival evidence, Doe demonstrates how comic theater was exploited in, and worked against, the monarchy' s carefully cultivated public image-questions that became especially urgent after the ascension of the music-loving Marie Antoinette. The Comedians of the King examines the aesthetic and political tensions that arose when a genre with popular roots was folded into the Bourbon propaganda machine, and when actors trained at the Paris fairs became official representatives of the sovereign, or comediens ordinaires du roi.
"The Comedians of the King has the potential to be recognized as a central work on eighteenth-century musical culture. Doe approaches the subject through a mingling of social and political perspectives, keying into the major questions that have arisen about the last decades of the Old Regime in France. This book offers an intriguing discussion about how we might interpret the evolution of public life by looking at it in interdisciplinary perspective. "--William Weber, California State University, Long Beach "The Comedians of the King provides a fascinating and nuanced account of the process by which the opera comique, with its humble origins in the Parisian fairgrounds, became the cosmopolitan emblem of l' Europe francaise and an important vehicle for courtly propaganda. Clearly and compellingly, Doe tells the story of the opera comique alongside the story of a queen, Marie Antoinette, whose tastes and efforts lay behind its transformation. The result is a book that amplifies our understanding of not only the genre but also the social ambivalences and contradictions it reflected on the eve of the French Revolution. "--Georgia Cowart, Case Western Reserve University "Skillfully combining detailed study of a wide range of works with institutional history and royal patronage, The Comedians of the King will transform our understanding of a key chapter in the history of lyric theater. A noteworthy feature of Doe' s work is her ability to weave the political dimension of her narrative with institutional and stylistic developments in opera comique. Meticulously researched and persuasively argued, this major study is essential reading. "--Mark Darlow, University of Cambridge
Julia Doe is assistant professor of music at Columbia University.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780226743257
Published: 12 Mar 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Format: Hardback
Pages: 296

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