Opéra de salon

Opéra de salon emerged in the early 1850s out of a much longer tradition of théâtre de société: the cultivation of performing plays in aristocratic town houses and châteaux which continued into the Second Empire of the 1850s and 1860s, and beyond. It consisted of a one-act opérette with between six and nine musical compositions separated by spoken dialogue that carried the action in the same way as opéra-comique or opérette itself. Opéra de salon was separated from opérette and related genres by its performance context: never shared with the regulated theatre, opéra de salon was cultivated in domestic living spaces that were repurposed in ways that ranged from simply pushing back the furniture to building a fully-fledged theatre in one's own home. Opéra de salon furthermore found its way into the concert culture hosted by Parisian piano manufacturers Herz, Erard, Pleyel, and others. In Opéra de salon: Parisian Societies and Salons in the Second Empire, author Mark Everist brings to light a genre and a set of cultural practices that have long been obscured. Approximately 130 opéras de salon were composed and performed up to ca. 1875, and, as Everist demonstrates, they represent a significant generic trajectory in the history of nineteenth century music and theatre. Produced by major composers and librettists of the day, these works play into questions of gender, age, and urban topography in ways unlike other musical and theatrical genres of the day. Everist's focus is on the salon--the domestic, the private--but he also shows how opéra de salon moves effortlessly between intimate familial space, the more public salon, to the public and largely commercial concert hall in ways that prompt reflection on the status of all these critical categories. Ultimately, Everist challenges the hermetic discipline of 'opera studies' by opening up massive repertories that are still unknown, and by developing critical practices that go beyond traditional categories of theatres, institutions, consumers, and creators.

Mark Everist is Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. His research focuses on the music of western Europe from 1150-1330, music for the stage in nineteenth-century France, Mozart, reception theory, and historiography. He is the author of six monographs, the most recent of which are Genealogies of Music and Memory and The Empire at the Opera, editor of three volumes of the Magnus Liber Organi, and has published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and collections of essays. The recipient of the Solie (2010) and Slim (2011) awards of the American Musicological Society, he was elected a fellow of the Academia Europaea in 2012. Everist was President of the Royal Musical Association from 2011-17 and was elected a corresponding member of the American Musicological Society in 2014. He was visiting professor at the Sorbonne in 2021-22 and was elected to a fellowship at the French Institute of Advanced Studies from 2023-24. In July 2024, Everist was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.

Illustrations Music Examples Tables Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Opéra de salon Opéra - Salon Opéra de salon Patterns of Publication 2. Performers and the Improvised Stage Casts, Scoring and Instrumentation Vocal Artists The Improvised Stage 3. Performance and Places: The Bourgeois and the Aristocrat Spaces and Patrons Spaces and Patrons 1: The Medical Profession Spaces and Patrons 2: Entrepreneurs and the Haute-Bourgeoisie Spaces and Patrons 3: Government and Aristocracy 4. Performance and Places: Music and Letters Spaces and Patrons 4: Artists and Men of Letters Spaces and Patrons 5: Professional Musicians Spaces and Patrons 6: Public Spaces 5. Contexts and cultivation Contexts for creation Salons - Concerts Théâtre de société Charade Proverbe Opéra de salon and the Regulated Theatre Salon, Song and Séance 6. Performance in the Parloir Women, the Parloir and Opéra de salon Women Composers and Librettists 7. Locating Opéra de salon Time and Space Spatialité Geolocation Multiplicities of Power Opéra de salon in the Provinces and Abroad Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index