THE \u27DRAME LYRIQUE\u27: A STUDY IN THE ESTHETICS OF OPERA-COMIQUE, 1762-1791

Barnabe Famian de Rozoi\u27s Dissertation sur le drame lyrique (1775) was but one of many eighteenth-century descriptions of a new genre of opera-comique. This study argues that the drame lyrique, a musical genre of theater created by followers of Diderot to moralize the lower classes by presenting them with a touching picture of their own experiences, was an unsurpassed realization of the same ideals that informed the spoken drame. The new moral purpose of the drame lyrique fostered new esthetic goals. The author became a painter whose works were conceived to be performed, not merely read. Hence aural elements (versification, declamation) declined in importance while visual elements (gesture, costume, decoration) increased in importance. Static recitation of verse gave way to a more natural utterance of prose or, at times, to moments of silence. Dramatically effective gesture was cultivated at all times. The composer of drames lyriques was also considered a painter, and his work a tableau. This precept led not only to pictorialisms in instrumental music, but also to more profound transformations in all types of musical set pieces. The most far-reaching changes resulted when the painting of the librettist spilled over onto what had traditionally been the canvas of his partner, the composer. The haughtiness and unscrupulousness of actors at the Comedie Francaise, Paris, drove some of France\u27s leading dramatic authors from that theater to the Comedie Italienne. Many of the playwrights perforce became librettists between 1769 and 1780, when French spoken comedy was banned at the Comedie Italienne. When one such author, Michel-Jean Sedaine, grasped control of musical composition as well as other dramaturgical elements, he produced examples of the drame lyrique at its most essential. A preliminary sample of the repertory indicates that a typical drame lyrique was a three-act work containing prose dialogue, performed at the Comedie Italienne, and bearing the designation comedie melee d\u27ariettes. Desfontaines, Marmontel, Marsollier, Monvel, Rozoi, and Sedaine were most prolific among authors, while most prolific composers included Dalayrac, Dezede, Gretry, Martini, Monsigny, and Philidor