Paris Opera and Music

Gab Bowler

Giovanni Battista Lulli:

Before 1653, the music in France was mainly accompanying dance in the

royal court, although in 1645 an Italian opera group performed in Paris for

the first time.

Giovanni Battista Lulli, "the founder of French opera", was born in 1632 in

Florence, but moved to France when he was eight. "In France, opera had its

rise in the ballet- the elaborate spectacles performed for the entertainment

of the court" . In 1653, Lully came into the French court, under Louis XIV as

a ballet dancer, where he wrote the music for the orchestra and played some

violin. As he improved as a dancer and songwriter, Lully improved the royal

orchestra and eventually became the "Master of music" for the royal family.

As he continued to compose and sometimes dance in ballets for the court,

Lully changed his name to Lulli, so that his Italian profile was removed,

under the eyes of the king. In later years, Lulli met Moliere and together

they wrote a few comedy-ballets which included "The Forced Marriage" (1664)

and "The Middle Class Gentleman" (1670). Lulli, slowly but surly, changed

music in the Paris court, by lessening the amount of dance and increasing the

amount of singing, in his compositions. He "gradually changed the ballet of

court into danced opera" . He established the guidelines for the

characteristics of French opera by creating the slow and graceful movements

of the singers as well as the slow and distinct words and melodies. Lulli

died in 1687 because of cutting his foot, during a performance, which

infected the rest of his body.

Jean-Phillippe Rameau:

"Without altering the style (Lullis' style), he enriched it with a

larger variety of harmony and an increased prominence given to the orchestra"

. Jean-Phillippe Rameau was born in Dijon in 1683. He traveled through Lyon

and Dijon, playing organ and violin in different orchestras, but finally

ended up in Paris in 1722. There he worked on his "Traite´ de l'harmonie"

which focused on the idea of sound and harmony. This was very important to

his career because it brought him much respect and popularity amongst the

other composers in Paris but at the same time, he wasn't able to get a job as

an organist in the city. In 1726, Rameau met and married Marie-Louise

Mangeot, and by 1727 ended his career as an organist and focused more on

opera. In 1733, at age 50, Rameau composed his first opera entitled

"Hippolyte et Aricie". This opera caused much controversy between the liberal

opera (people who were looking at the future of opera), and the conservative

opera (people who only liked Lulli). Never the less, it was a popular opera,

as it focused more on melody and music, rather than dance and plot, as did

his later operas, which were equally as popular. As his popularity expanded,

Rameau became friends with the financier La Poupliniere, and from there

entered into the "stimulating circle of writers, artists and musicians

gathered around La Poupliniere" . From there Rameau was able to work with

stronger musicians and composers, leading to new pieces and eventually being

appointed royal chamber music composer in 1745. He wrote a few more

compositions, which included "Les surprises de l'amour" with Voltaire, and "

La princesse de Navarre". By his death in 1764, Rameau was quite popular and

over 1500 people attended his memorial.

Christoph Willibad Gluck:

Christoph Willibad Gluck was born in 1714 in Erasbach, Czech, but ended

up in Milan where he wrote and displayed his first opera in 1741. He spent

time in Vienna composing, and also wrote and performed in some French opera

comiques, but mainly stayed in Italy for his early career. Gluck had many

ideas, but they didn't seem to be working out in the Italian courts, so he

decided to try the Parisian opera. In 1774 he showed "Iphigenie en Aulide"

which was a large success, as was "Iphigenie en Tauride" 1779, but failed

with "Echo et Narcisse". By then he was getting older, and his career came

to an end and finally he died in 1787.

"He aimed to make the music serve the poetry through its expression of the

situations of the story, without interrupting it for conventional orchestral

ritornellos or, particularly, florid and ornamental singing; to make the

overture relevant to the drama and the orchestration apt to the words; to

break down the sharp contrast between recitative and aria"

"That nothing ought to be written that is not effective"

-Christoph Willibad Gluck

Bibliography

1996 by Macmillan Press Ltd., London.

2.http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.bautz.de/bb

kl/l/lully_j_b.shtml&prev=/search%3Fq%3DGiovanni%2BBattista%2BLulli%26hl%3Den

3. http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Composition/Composers/Baroque

Manufacturing Company Inc

Footnotes

1 O'Connell, p.19

2 web site on Lulli

3 O'Connell, P.20

4 web site #1

5 Grove Concise