ONE-ACT 'OPERA COMIQUE' FROM 1800 TO 1810: CONTRIBUTIONS OF HENRI-MONTAN BERTON AND NICOLO ISOUARD

• Main Author: ROBISON, CAROL JEANNE
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1986
• Subjects: Music
• ISBN: 9798641261607

Napoleon Bonaparte's overthrow of the Directory in 1799 affected drastic changes in all facets of French society. The genre of opera comique also underwent significant changes. From the revolutionary drame lyrique with its violent and suspenseful plot, bombastic orchestration, and declamatory vocal style, the opera comique of the early nineteenth century returned to the bourgeois comedy popular before the Revolution, and to music with clear textures and tuneful melodies. Nicolo Isouard (1775-1818) and Henri-Montan Berton (1767-1844), representative composers of this period, followed these trends in their one-act operas comiques of this decade. Isouard, a Maltese composer who came to Paris at the close of the French Revolution, was the most influential composer at the Opera Comique from 1805-1811. His style fuses the best of the Italian and French schools; his well-fashioned and dramatically-significant ensembles reflect Isouard's thorough training in the opera buffa style. Isouard also incorporated in his operas elements of the revolutionary style for which the public had developed a taste, e.g., unusual instrumental combinations, wind solos, and sudden changes in timbre, texture, and dynamics. Berton, on the other hand, began his career as a composer in 1789; his most successful operas, written during the Revolution, reflect the eccentric, experimental style that marked most works of that period. However, in his attempt to conform to the fashionable Italian style of the Napoleonic years, Berton almost completely forsook the features of his early works which would have made his later operas more successful. The diverse styles of these two composers are compared and contrasted in six one-act operas comiques written in the first decade of the nineteenth century. These include Le Concert interrompu (1802), La Romance (1804), and Les Maris garcons (1806) by Berton; and Le Medecin turc (1803), L'Intrigue aux fenetres (1805), and Les Rendez-vous bourgeois (1807), by Isouard. The works of both composers reflect the influence of the popular Italian style in their predominantly uncomplicated orchestral textures, their graceful, tuneful melodies, and their generally simple harmonies. However, the two composers differ considerably in their approach to harmony, instrumentation, and solo and ensemble writing.