Lists of works performed from 1552 in all Paris theaters, with names of casts
and much detail. The Nouveau Théâtre Italien is especially well covered.- Rice, Paul F. The Performing Arts at Fontainebleau from Louis XIV to Louis
XVI. Studies in Music, 102. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research, 1989. xiii,
299p. ISBN 0-8357-1869-7. PN2636 .F66 R53.
A chronology of performances, including plays, ballets, and operas, from 1661
to 1792. History and description of the building and its halls; the royal family
and the theater. - Burney, Charles. Music, Men and Manners in France and Italy, 1770. Ed. H.
Edmund Poole. London: Folio Society, 1969. xxix, 245p. ML195 .B961.
Fascinating, valuable account of musicians, concerts, and libraries, as well as
nonmusical events, in June–December 1770. Burney was collecting material
for his 1776 music history, one of the first in English. His other research travels
are described at #61. - Striffling, Louis. Esquisse d’une histoire de goût musicale en France au XVIIIe
siècle. Paris: Delagrave, 1912. 286p. Reprint, New York: American Musico-
logical Society, 1978. ML270.3 .S7.
Critical responses to music by journalists, theorists, diarists, philosophers, and
poets. Discussion of methodology and sources for a study of opera and other
genres of the period. - Didier, Béatrice. La musique des lumières: Diderot, l’encyclopédie, Rousseau.
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1985. 479p. ML79 .O5.
Recounts scientific and philosophical approaches to music, including opera,
from the 1740s to the Revolution. Attention to the human voice, the opera dis-
putes, librettists, the nature of opera. Extensively footnoted but without a bib-
liography.
Opera: 17th and 18th Centuries
The predecessor and companion form to French opera was the ballet de cour,which is
well covered in these two works:
- McGowan, Margaret M. L’art du ballet de cour en France, 1581–1643. Paris:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1963. 351p. ML3460 .M146.
A narrative history, footnoted, with 24 plates. Description and location of all
source materials; references to contemporary criticism. Bibliography of about
300 items, name and title index. - Christout, Marie-Françoise. Le ballet de cour de Louis XIV, 1643–1672.
Paris: Picard, 1967. 276p. ML270 .A1 V5 v.12.
A scholarly history with 24 plates; much attention to costume, music, and
scenography. Chronology of ballets, with bibliographic references. Bibliogra-
phy of primary and secondary materials, about 200 entries. Name and title
index.
France 419