The Humanistic Tradition, Book 5 Romanticism, Realism, and the Nineteenth-Century World

65

TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)

Black

CHAPTER 29 The Romantic Style in Art and Music 65

65

The ballets performed on the stage of the Paris Opéra

were the culmination of a golden age in European dance.

In Paris in 1830, the Italian-born prima ballerina(the first,

or leading, female dancer in a ballet company) Maria

Taglioni (1804–1884) perfected the art of dancing sur les

gaslight, the Paris Opéra became the model for public
theaters throughout Europe. For the façade, Jean-Baptiste
Carpeaux (1827–1875) created a 15-foot-high sculpture
whose exuberant rhythms capture the spirit of the dance as
the physical expression of human joy (Figure 29.20).

Figure 29.19 JEAN-LOUIS CHARLES GARNIER, the Grand Staircase in the Opéra, Paris, 1860–1875. Engraving
from Charles Garnier, Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris, 1880, Vol. 2, plate 8. The Paris Opéra ruled that all works
presented there must be in French, thus requiring foreign composers to translate their librettos. Also required was
a second-act ballet, which became a standard device in French operas.