19th-century France
• Since 1789 and the start of the
French Revolution France had
been in flux.
• In 1851 Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte, President of the
Republic, staged a coup.
• Dissolved National Assembly and
held a referendum establishing
himself as Emperor.
• “We shall rule this country with a
purse in one hand a whip in the
other…” (Duke of Persigny)
Second Empire (1852-1870)
• Napoleon III’s Second Empire
gave France respite from war at
home, and was a period (at least
seemingly) of peace and
prosperity.
• Paris redesigned by Baron
Haussmann – a symbol for a new
France.
• Censorship and increased police
powers silenced opposition and
doubt. France knew only what
Napoleon III showed them.
• Napoleon established his Paris
court as centre of social/cultural
life, offering glittering
distractions & rewards to
courtiers.
“Operetta! Flowing champagne, ceaseless waltzing, risqué couplets…uniforms and
glittering ballgowns, romancing and dancing! Gaiety and lightheartedness,
sentiment and Schmalz…”(Richard Traubner, 1983)
Orpheus in the Underworld
• Offenbach was the “Mozart of the
Champs-Elysees”.
• 21 October, 1858, Orpheus in the
Underworld premiered at
Theatre des Bouffes-Parisiens –
the first true “opera bouffe” in
Paris.
• The opera takes a new approach
to the classic myth of Orpheus &
Euridice.
• The reaction was extreme….
“They have killed off respect!”
“Classical Olympia has been thrown into disarray, and the authors have
demolished the old schoolroom material of heroics and tragedy”
“A profanation”
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