Opéra-Comique

Parisian institution, founded in 1715 after the Théâtres de la Foire. It was in competition with the Opéra and the Comédie Française, and because of this and its often satirical bent it had a much interrupted existence, flourishing 1724-44, 1752-8 and merging with the Comédie Italienne in 1762. There were rival companies bearing the name in the 1790s, but in 1801 the Théâtre de l′Opéra-Comique was established, first at the Salle Feydeau (until 1829), then at the Salle Favart (1840-87, 1898 onwards). The company primarily performed opera with spoken dialogue (not necessarily comic opera); among its premières have been works by Méhul, Boieldieu, Auber, Thomas, Bizet (Carmen), Offenbach (Les contes d′Hoffmann), Chabrier, Debussy (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Ravel (L′heure espagnole, L′enfant et les sortilèges).

Opéra-comique is defined as opera with spoken recitatives in contrast to opera with sung recitatives. It need not have comic subject-matter. Its 17th-c. origins were the comédies-ballets with spoken dialogues alternating with song and dance, and the comedies performed at théâtres de la foire using popular vaudeville tunes with new words. In 1716 a Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique was established performing comédies-vaudevilles. Charles-Simon Favart was the most interesting writer of these and was in favour of introducing newly composed music. The visit of the Italian Opera Buffa troupe in 1752 and the Guerre des Bouffons inspired a new type of national comic opera, soon known as comédie mêlée d'ariettes, where all the music was original and the libretti were at times sentimental and at times made use of social satire. The most important composers were Philidor and Monsigny, and later Grétry and Méhul. Diderot in his Entretiens sur le Fils naturel (1757) outlined a plan d'opéra-comique which proved quite influential.

In 1762 the Comédie-Italienne merged with the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, and the resulting Opéra-Comique moved to the Salle Favart, which it still occupies. In the late 18th to early 19th c. the opéra-comique developed in two ways. The so-called ‘Rescue’ opéra-comique was in reality serious romantic opera often with a social and/or moral message in tune with the Revolutionary period. This was followed by another, lighter genre consisting of simple tuneful comedies and exemplified by the works of Francois-Adrien Boïeldieu (1775-1834) in the 1820s. Under the influence of Rossini a more worldly strain developed with the opéras-comiques of Auber and Hérold. Bizet's Carmen (1875) is a later example of a serious work set in the traditional opéra-comique framework, but in general in the later 19th c. the more frivolous operetta took over [see Meilhac and Halévy].

[Kerry Murphy]

This article is about the Paris opera house. For the London opera house associated with the premieres of several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, see Opera Comique. For the opera style, see Opéra comique.

The Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique (National theatre of Opéra comique) is an opera company and opera house in Paris. It is located in the Place Boieldieu, in the IIe arrondissement of Paris, near the Paris Stock Exchange and not far from the Opera Garnier, home of the Académie Royale de Musique.

The Opéra-Comique company was established in 1714 to offer French opera as an alternative to Italian opera that then dominated the continent. Productions at the Opéra-Comique distinguished from those at the Académie Royale de Musique by their less formal requirements. French opéra comique, in the 19th century at least, did not have to be comic; the term covered a much wider category of work.

Notable composers in the history of Opéra-Comique include Auber, Halévy, Berlioz and Bizet. Bochsa, the famous eccentric harpist can, among others, be mentioned as he also composed seven operas for the Opera-Comique (http://bochsa.site.voila.fr). Opéra-Comique staged the first performance of Bizet's Carmen.

Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust received its ill-fated première on 6 December 1846 at the Opéra-Comique. It was one of the worst setbacks in his career, leaving him heavily in debt and profoundly affecting his attitude to the performance of his music in Paris.

Another striking première in the history of the Opéra-Comique was that of Debussy's only opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, on 30 April 1902.

Salle Favart

Lithograph of the second Salle Favart which housed the Opera-Comique between 1840 and 1887

Although the current building, known as the "salle Favart," was built in 1898, the opera house is in itself the oldest one in Paris. Two previous buildings burnt down in 1838 and 1887, not an uncommon occurrence with theatres before the 20th century.

External link

• Opéra-Comique website

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