Backstage at the Revolution

by Johnson, Victoria

• ISBN13: 9780226401959
• ISBN10: 0226401952
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

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 weapon 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'sBackstage at the Revolutiontells 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 culturean identity established by the conditions of its founding one hundred years earlier under Louis XIV. Johnson's rich cultural history moves between both epochs, taking readers backstage to see how a motley crew of singers, dancers, royal ministers, poet entrepreneurs, shady managers, and the king of France all played a part in the creation and preservation of one of the world's most fabled cultural institutions.

Author Biography

Victoria Johnson is assistant professor of organizational studies at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Past in the Present

Foundings

Trajectories

The Storming of the Opera On the Eve of Revolution

The Struggle for the Opera

The Perpetuation of Privilege

The City and the Theaters

Orpheus on the Seine Opening Night at the Palais-Royal

The Founding of the Paris Opera

An Academy for Opera

Why an Academy?The Hybrid Opera

Operade Luxe

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