Backstage at the revolution
Subtitle: how the Royal Paris Opera survived the end of the old regime
By: Victoria Johnson.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
ISBN-13: 9780226401959
Subjects: Opéra de Paris -- History -- 17th century; Opéra de Paris -- History -- 18th century; Opera -- France -- Paris -- 17th century; Opera -- France -- Paris -- 18th century
Description: "On July 14, 1789, a crowd of angry French citizens en route to the Bastille broke into the Paris Opera and helped themselves to any sturdy weapons they could find. Yet despite its long association with the royal court, its special privileges, and the splendor of its performances, the Opera itself was spared, even protected, by Revolutionary officials. Victoria Johnson's Backstage at the Revolution tells the story of how this legendary opera house, despite being a lightning rod for charges of tyranny and waste, weathered the most dramatic political upheaval in European history." "Sifting through royal edicts, private letters, and Revolutionary records of all kinds, Johnson uncovers the roots of the Opera's survival in its identity as a uniquely privileged icon of French culture - an identity established by the conditions of its founding one hundred years earlier under Louis XIV."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-268)) and index.
Table of contents: title: The past in the present. Foundings ; Trajectories; title: The storming of the opera. On the eve of revolution ; The struggle for the opera; title: The perpetuation of privilege. The city and the theaters ; The victory of privilege; title: Orpheus on the Seine. Opening night at the Palais-Royal ; The founding of the Paris Opera; title: An academy for opera. Why an academy? ; The hybrid opera; title: Opera de luxe. The second coming of the Paris Opera ; Luxurious Lully; title: The phantom founders. Luxury and privilege at the opera after Perrin and Lully ; The war of luxury and simplicity.