- Lesure, François. L’opéra classique français, 17e et 18e siècles. Iconographie
musicale, 1. Geneva: Minkoff, 1972. vi, 121p. ISBN 2-8266-0000-1. ML89
.L285.
A collection of 93 plates, showing stage design and machinery, with valuable
introduction and commentary. Bibliography, no index. - Coeyman, Barbara. “Opera and Ballet in Seventeenth-Century French The-
aters: Case Studies of the Salle des Machines and the Palais Royal Theater.” In
Opera in Context(#288), 37–72.
The Salle des Machines, in the Tuileries Palace, opened 1662; it had a capacity
of 6,000–8,000 persons. Coeyman explores structural features of French the-
aters and how they served performances, presenting a political and cultural
context. While Italy had permanent opera houses in the 17th century, French
buildings were unstable and temporary. By the start of the 18th century,
French theaters were more like the Italian.
Music in General: 19th and 20th Centuries
2268.The New Grove Twentieth Century French Masters: Fauré, Debussy, Satie,
Ravel, Poulenc, Messiaen, Boulez. Ed. Jean-Michel Nectoux et al. New York:
Norton, 1986. 291p. ISBN 0-333-40239-1. ML390 .N48.
Articles from NG;each is entered in this guide under the composer.- Bloom, Peter. Music in Paris in the Eighteen-thirties = La musique à Paris dans
les années mil huit cent trente. Papers from the International Conference on
Music in Paris in the Eighteen Thirties, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.,
April 1982. La vie musicale en France au XIXe siècle, 4. Stuyvesant, N.Y.: Pen-
dragon, 1987. xiv, 641p. ISBN 0-918728-71-1. ML1727.8 .P2 S78.
Consists of 23 essays by various specialists. On opera: “Verdi et la culture
parisienne des années 1830,” by Marcello Conati; “Music at the Théâtre-
Italien,” by Philip Gossett; “The Boulevard Theaters and Continuity in French
Opera of the 19th Century,” by Karin Pendle; “The Influence of French Grand
Opera on Wagner,” by John Warrack; and “La musique dans le mélodrame des
théâtres parisiens,” by Nicole Wild. The books ends with the only “postface”
so far discovered and an index.
Opera: 19th and 20th Centuries
- Bruyas, Florian. Histoire de l’operette en France, 1855–1965. Lyon: Vitte,
- 693p. ML1727 .B78.
A narrative account, with interesting descriptions of Parisian musical life in the
years 1850, 1871, 1900, and 1945. Bibliography of about 30 items, name and
title index. - Fulcher, Jane F. The Nation’s Image: French Grand Opera As Politics and
Politicized Art. New York: Cambridge U.P., 1987. x, 280p. ISBN 0-521-
32774-1. ML1727 .F84.
The politics of opera, mostly in the period 1830–1870: radicalization, repres-
sion, politicized attacks on composers and librettists. Theater as a “subtly used
424 Opera