Origin of French Comedy Songs
French comedy songs first originated as an art form in folk temple festivals. As early as the end of the 16th century, the St. Germain Temple Theater appeared with the lyrics of popular song tunes sung burlesque, people see it as the prototype of the French comedy opera. 1674 around the time of a puppet performance of a small opera was introduced, and was soon loved by the audience. Later, actors replaced the puppets on stage and performed musical theater with songs and dances with elements of comedy or farce. It was called "satirical opera" or "comic opera" because its content was often satirical of current events. This form of performance was opposed by Lully and the French Opera. After their protests, the court ordered the opera to be banned and the size of the orchestra to be limited. However, the supporters of the puppet opera did it in a special way, by erecting a huge sign in front of the stage during the performances, with the lyrics of the opera written in large, bold letters. Because the tunes were popular songs that were all very familiar and relatable, it was easy for the audience to sing them as fluently as the actors. As a result, the atmosphere of the performance was particularly enthusiastic as the actors on the stage performed various movements and the audience sang along with them in song. This confrontation lasted about 30 years and ended with an official concession: in 1714, the Opéra Comique was founded by the two troupes of the Place Saint-Germain and the Place Saint-Luon, and in 1716 it was authorized to have a variety of artistic expressions, including singing, dancing, and instrumental music, which it called "Opéra Comique". Since then, the opera has become very popular in France.
The Opera Polemics
The two performances of the Italian opera The Maid and the Butler in Paris in 1746 and 1752 led to the "Opera Polemics" debate. The two sides of this debate were the French grand opera school and the Italian opera school. The theme of the debate was the superiority or inferiority of Italian comic opera and French grand opera, and the focus of the debate was whether French grand opera should be changed. The two opposing camps were clearly defined: on one side, the aristocratic conservatives led by Louis XV and his mistress, the Marquise de Pompadour, supported the grand opera of Lully and Rameau, while on the other side, the encyclopedists led by the Empress Maria Lechenska, including Rousseau, Diderot, and D'Alembert, supported the Italian opera comique. Supporters of both factions gathered around the boxes of their respective leaders, heckling and abusing each other and cheering for their favorite genre. The theater was filled with gunpowder, turning every performance into a battle. In the midst of the battle of the theaters, the French Grand Opera School introduced a new work called Didon and the Morning, and with the power of Madame de Pompadour, tried to overwhelm The Maid and the Butler. But the work was mediocre.
And Rousseau himself, a composer who supported Italian comic opera, wrote an idyllic comic opera, The Village Diviner (1752), combining the strengths of Italian comic opera with the features found in French temple burlesque, combining singing with dialogue, and dancing with pantomime. proving his own reformist views. This controversy promoted the creation of early French comic opera and formed the basic model of French-style comic opera.
Famous French composers of comic opera
The main writers of early French comic opera were Jean-Claude Girier (1667- 1737), a composer of French comic opera, who composed works characterized by temple comedy; he is regarded as the founder of the comic opera.
In the mid-18th century the national comic opera became more mature, and among the composers of the Opéra Comique was Feridor (l726-1795). Previously an accomplished chess master, he turned to the composition of comic opera only after the age of 33. He composed eleven comic operas in one ****, with major works such as Burlesque the Shoemaker (1759), The Gardener and His Lordship (1761), The Horseshoe Maker (1761), The Sorcerer (1764), etc., and The comedy opera Tom Jones (1765), which was based on an original book by the English writer Fielding, was a major success. Comedy Tom Jones is one of the finest. The characters of Feridor's comic opera are very distinctive, and the minor characters often have high morals and excellent talents, while the major characters are stupid and cunning, in a position of ridicule; his musical images are very dramatic, novel in conception, and good at depicting; because he was influenced by German music, he was unique in the use of orchestra in symphonic expression.
Monsigny (1729-1817) was also an influential French composer of comic opera. His compositions are creative and innovative, rich in emotion, with high artistic charm and appreciation value. Moncini's masterpieces include The Confession of the Impudent (1759), The Rose and the Cola Fruit (1764), The Deserter (1769), and The Beautiful Althena (1773). Moncini's comedies are characterized by more serious themes and twists in the plot, while the comic element serves only as a foil for the scenes. This kind of comedy is called "serious comedy", and made a useful exploration for the transformation of later comedy into lyric opera.
The most significant contribution to the development of French comic opera was made by Gretry (1741-1813). Gretry was the main representative of the reform of French comic opera in the late 18th century. He was born in Liège, Belgium, and studied voice, violin and harmony in the local church. 1768, he accepted Voltaire's advice to come to France and settled in Paris until his death.
Gretry*** composed more than 50 musical and dramatic works, most of which were comic operas. His representative works include The Hurons (1768), Lucile (1769), The Talking Pictures (1769), Zemir and Azor (1771), and False Magic (1775), etc. During the French Revolution, he wrote William Tell (1791) and **** and the Female Representatives of the State (1794), etc., which are characterized with comedies with progressive ideas and revolutionary characters. Gretry's most successful work was Charles the Lionheart, performed in 1784. This play is known for its melodious and dramatic expressions. It was the precursor of the "rescue" operas at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, Laborde's "The Painted Boy, the Lover and the Enemy" (1758), and the famous violinist Gavini's "The Fiancé" (1760), and Bryce's "Annette and Lupin" (1762), also belong to the outstanding works of this period.
In the 19th century, many cities in France set up opera houses to strengthen the musical atmosphere of comedy, and there appeared "The Sheikh of Baghdad" (1800) and "The White Lady" (1825) by Bourvaldillot (1775-1834), "The Devil's Brothers" (1830) by Auber, and "The Lady in the Army" (1840) by Donizetti.
With the development of the times, the original French comic opera in the comedy factor is less and less, the development of comic opera increasingly tends to serious and lyrical, even with sentimental colors, but more is to inspire morale, renewed spirit, infected people's hearts. This paved the way for the creation of lyric opera.
Typical works
Grete's opera Charles the Lionheart (1784) Charles the Lionheart's plot: King Richard's side of the singer for many years, Blondel (Blondel), pretending to be a blind singer minstrels in all directions, and later found that his master, King Richard, has been imprisoned. With the help of exiled English horsemen and Margery of Flanders, Richard escapes from prison.
Ober's opera The Lady in the Army (1840)
The plot of The Lady in the Army is about Napoleon's second invasion of the Tyrol with the French army, and Marie, who was adopted by Napoleon's 21st unit when she was a child, has grown up and has been serving in the army's logistic work, and is rescued one day by a young peasant, Tonio, who has fallen in love with her. Tornio enlisted in the army and was later promoted to the rank of regimental commander, hoping to marry Marie. But Marie's aunt, the Countess, comes to fetch her lost niece back to Paris and wants to marry Marie to the young Duke Kragen. At this point the team rushes in to "rescue their daughter". Marie sings out her gratitude to the team for raising her, and the Countess is y moved and finally agrees to her marriage to Tonio. Mary sang in the play "I'm in the barracks ......", "Army Song", Mary and Tonio's duet "I heart earnest fervent hope" and the end of the play before the chorus are called the quintessential songs have been passed down. Second, the Italian comedy opera (harmonic opera)