French theater of the late 19th early 20th century. French theater in paris

For the history of French opera, the middle of the 19th century turned out to be a turning point, a period of changing directions, styles, a period of genre reorientation. In the first half of the 19th century, the genre of “grand opera” dominated here, associated with the style of the novels by V. Hugo, with the dramaturgy of E. Scribe, represented by the work of J. Meyerbeer. Plots characteristic of the "grand opera" are gradually losing their relevance, are beginning to be perceived as stilted. A new literary school is born in France, it is called the "school of nervous sensitivity" - these are the works of A. Dumas son ("The Lady of the Camellias", "Lady of the Half World", "Diana de Liz"), the Goncourt brothers ("Rene Mauprin"), A. Dode ("Sappho"). In these works, all the attention of the authors is focused on showing the inner world of the characters. And most often - heroines, women, often - women are nervous, impressionable, fragile, impulsive. A typical image is a “repentant sinner”, a demi-monde lady who dreams of happiness, but is forced to give up dreams and love. Thus, after the monumental historical dramas of Hugo, the love-lyrical drama and melodrama become a new center of attraction for the French theater.

On this literary basis, a new genre emerges in French musical theater - lyric opera(Note that the opera La Traviata by G. Verdi became a kind of anticipation of this genre). She changed, but did not cancel the genre of "grand opera". Both Gounod and Bizet (the largest French opera composers of the 2nd half of the 19th century) also turned to the grand opera genre, but this was rather a tribute to the departed. And the lyric opera is the trend of the new time. The Grand Opera theater itself was perceived in these years as a stronghold of routine. Everything new happened at the Teatrolyrical Opera, which existed in Paris from 1851 to 1870.

Charles Gounod's Faust (1859) is considered to be the first completed example of a lyric opera. It was Gounod who managed to create a new operatic style, and this is the historical significance of his work. He is the author of 12 operas, different in terms of genre. This is the comic opera The Doctor Willy-nilly (1858), and the opera in Meyerbeer's style The Queen of Sheba (1862). But the best are works related to the lyrical genre: Faust (1859), Mireil (1864) and Romeo and Juliet (1867). Further, Thomas (“Mignon”, 1866, “Hamlet”, 1868), J. Bizet (“The Pearl Fishers”, 1863, “The Beauty of Perth”, 1867), Delibes (“Lakme”, 1883) turn to the genre of lyric opera. The last bright examples of this genre are the works of Jules Massenet, after Bizet, the most brilliant opera composer in France in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Contemporaries called Massenet "a poet female soul". Being the author of more than 20 operas, he fully found himself in the lyrical operas - Manon (1881-84, based on the novel by Abbé Prevost) and Werther (1886, Goethe's The Sufferings of Young Werther).

Lyric opera grew out of the same romantic origins as grand opera. The grand opera became an expression of the pathos of romanticism, its socially critical orientation. This is an opera based on the development of a line of mass action. Lyric opera is the other side of romanticism: intimacy, intimacy, psychologism.

Thanks to the lyrical opera, new plots appear on the musical and theatrical stage, or classical plots are revealed in an absolutely new way. Composers often turn to Shakespeare ("Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet"), to Goethe ("Faust", "Werther"). The philosophical content of the original source in the opera is reduced, the classical plots are deprived of their generalizing power, they acquire an everyday unpretentious appearance. Another important side of the plots is the departure from romantic elation and exclusivity. As a rule, the main characters are lyrical lovers, that is, any plot is treated primarily as a lyrical drama, or even a melodrama. As in contemporary French literature (the "school of nervous sensibility") attention shifts from the hero to the heroine. For example, in the opera "Faust" by Gounod, written according to the first part of Goethe's novel, the philosophical content of Goethe's work is practically not affected, the plot is interpreted in a lyrical-everyday aspect. The image of Margarita becomes central (even the contemporaries called the opera itself “Margarita”, and not “Faust”).

Another direction in the French lyric opera is associated with plots of foreign origin, with an oriental, exotic flavor. At the end of the 50s, David's symphony "The Desert" appears - one of the first "oriental" works in French music, the oriental theme becomes fashionable.

Bizet's opera The Pearl Seekers (1863) opens the list of lyrical "exotic" operas. The action takes place on the island of Ceylon, among the pearl divers, against the background of picturesque songs and dances, the love of the hunter Nadir and Leila is shown. The events of another "exotic" opera by Bizet, "Jamile" (1872), take place in Cairo, in the harem of Gartsia. In this work, the composer uses several authentic Arabic melodies and sensitively develops their rhythmic intonations.

In 1864, the opera Mireil by Gounod appears, the plot of which is connected with Provence, the most colorful and archaic region of France, where ancient customs and mores have been preserved. This flavor is also present in the music of the opera.

In Saint-Saens' opera Samson and Delilah (1866-1877), the plot is the same as in Handel's famous oratorio, but in a completely different interpretation. Handel was attracted by the heroic spirit of the biblical story. At Saint-Saens, the opera is a series of colorful oriental paintings, in the center of the opera is the female image of the insidious seductress Delilah.

Oriental flavor is subtly conveyed in Delibes' opera Lakme (from the life of the Indians).

It should be noted that the images of the East in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries also occupied a significant place in the operas of composers of other national schools: Russian (Glinka, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov), Italian (Verdi’s Aida, Cio-Cio -San" and "Turandot" by Puccini), and also found a very peculiar reflection in the music of the French Impressionists (Debussy, Ravel).

The French lyric opera is not only about updating plots. The musical style of the opera itself becomes different.

Firstly, in order to emphasize the simplicity and sincerity of the plots, the ordinary feelings of the characters, composers strive to “simplify” the musical language of the opera, to bring it closer to the everyday musical culture of their time. So the romance element penetrates the French opera stage. The romance is introduced into the opera not just as a solo number. Sometimes the dramatic plot line develops through the transformation of the romance beginning (it is on the dramatization of the romance melody that the development of the image of Margarita in Faust, the only image of the opera given in dynamics, is based: from a naive awakening of feelings to a passionate intoxication with it and further - to a tragic denouement, the madness of the heroine) .

Secondly, in operas with "exotic" plots, all sorts of oriental intonations, perceived indirectly, through the European vision, begin to be used. But in some moments it even reached the original reproduction (“Jamile” by Bizet).

These were the two main ways of updating the musical style of French opera itself.

The lyric opera as an independent genre rather quickly exhausted itself. Already J. Bizet, in his best opera, "Carmen", managed to overcome the narrow limits of the lyrical opera, reaching the heights of opera realism (1875). In the 1990s, the modern theme was increasingly asserted in the French theater. In the works of Alfred Bruno (the opera The Dream based on the novel by E. Zola, 1891, the opera The Siege of the Mill based on Maupassant, 1893) and Charpontier (the opera Louise, 1900), features of naturalism are noticeable. In 1902, the production of C. Debussy's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" opened a new period in the musical and theatrical culture of France.

G. Verdi.

Opera "Troubadour". 1 act (No. 2 scene and Leonora's cavatina, No. 3 scene and romance by Manrico); 2 act (No. 6 Azucena's song, No. 7 scene and Azucena's story); 3 act (No. 13 scene and Manrico's aria); 4 act (No. 14 scene and aria of Leonora and chorus "Miserere").

Opera "Rigoletto" 1 act (No. 1 prelude and introduction, No. 2 Duke's ballad “this or that”, No. 7 scene and duet of Rigoletto and Gilda, No. 9 Gilda's aria “The heart is full of joy”, No. 10 scene and chorus “Hush, hush”); 2 act (No. 12 scene and Rigoletto's aria "Curtisans ...", No. 13, 14 scene and duet of Gilda and Rigoletto "I entered the temple humbly"); 3 act (No. 15 Duke's song "The Heart of Beauties", No. 16 Quartet).

Opera "La Traviata" 1 act (Introduction, Alfred's drinking song "We will raise the cup of fun high", the final scene and Violetta's aria "Wouldn't you tell me"); 2 act (scene and duet of Violetta and Germont); Act 3 (orchestral prelude, Violetta's aria "Forgive you forever", scene and duet of Violetta and Alfred "We will leave Paris", finale).

Opera Aida» orchestral prelude, 1 act (No. 2 recitative and romance by Radamès "Sweet Aida", chorus "To the sacred banks of the Nile", No. 5 solo scene of Aida, No. 6 initiation scene and finale); 2 act (No. 8 scene and duet of Amneris and Aida, finale - choir "Glory to Egypt", choir "Laurel wreaths", march); 3 act (No. 10 introduction, choral prayer and romance of Aida "Azure Sky", No. 12 duet of Radames and Aida); Act 4 (duet of Amneris and Radames “All the priests gathered there”, duet of Aida and Radames “Forgive the earth”).

Opera "Tannhäuser": overture, 2 act (contest scene - Wolfram's song); Act 3 (Wolfram's romance "To the Evening Star", Elizabeth's prayer).

Opera Lohengrin: 1 act (orchestral introduction, Elsa's story about a dream “I remember how I prayed”, chorus of the people “Here! Here! Oh, what a miracle!”); act 2 (orchestral introduction, Friedrich Telramund's arioso "You killed me", Friedrich and Ortrud's oath of vengeance, Elsa's arioso "O light-winged wind"); Act 3 (orchestral introduction, wedding choir “Our Lord is Blessed”, Elsa and Lohengrin’s love duet “Wonderful Fire”, Lohengrin’s story “In the Holy Land”).

Opera "Tristan and Isolde": symphonic introduction to act 1; 1 act - the scene of drinking a love drink; 2 act, 2 scene - love duet of Tristan and Isolde; 3 act (introduction and melody of the shepherds, the scene of the death of Isolde).

Opera "Rhine Gold": orchestral introduction, interlude between scenes 2 and 3 (descent to Nibelheim), scene 4.

Opera "Valkyrie": 1 act (introduction and first scene of Sigmund and Sieglinde); 3 action ("flight of the Valkyries", scene three - Wotan's farewell to Brunnhilde and fire spells).

Opera "Siegfried": 1 act (the first song of Siegfried "Notung, Notung, the valiant sword" and the second song of Siegfried "My strong sword surrenders to the hammer"); 2 act (scene two, "the rustle of the forest").

Opera "Death of the Gods": a symphonic episode of Siegfried's journey along the Rhine from the prologue; Act 3 (Siegfried's story and funeral march).

Opera Faust: 1 act (verses of Mephistopheles "On earth the whole human race"); 2nd act (Siebel's couplets "Tell me," Faust's cavatina "Hello, sacred shelter", Marguerite's aria "with pearls"); Act 3 (Mephistopheles' serenade "Come out, my dear friend").

Symphonic suites from music to a drama by Daudet "Arlesian".

Opera "Carmen": overture (3 themes), 1 act (march and choir of boys No. 2, choir of workers “Look how the smoke flies away”, the first exit of Carmen No. 3, Carmen habanera “At love ...” No. 4, scene No. 5 - the appearance of Jose , the theme of fatal passion, the theme of Jose's love. Duet of Michaela and Jose No. 6. Carmen's scene with soldiers - a song about an old husband, Carmen seguidilla); 2 act (symphonic intermission, gypsy dance and Carmen's song, Escamillo's verses No. 13, scene of Carmen and Jose, Jose's aria with a flower); act 3: symphonic intermission, sextet and smugglers' choir no. 18, Carmen's divination scene no. 19; Act 4 - symphonic intermission, Choir No. 24 - Square in Seville, duet will conclude. Choir No. 26

During the third century that passed from the fall of Napoleon to the establishment of the Second Republic in 1848, France lived an intense political life. The restoration of royal power and the accession of the exiled Bourbon dynasty (1815) did not meet the interests of the country. Public opinion, which expressed the feelings and thoughts of the vast majority of the population of France, was sharply negative towards the Bourbon government, whose supporters were the most reactionary social forces - the landed aristocracy and the Catholic Church. The royal government tried to contain the growing wave of social discontent with repressions, censorship bans, and terror. And yet, anti-feudal sentiments, overt or covert criticism of the existing order, were expressed in various forms: in newspaper and magazine articles, in literary criticism, in works of fiction, in works on history and, of course, in the theater.

During the 20s of the 19th century, romanticism in France took shape as the leading artistic movement, whose figures developed the theory of romantic literature and romantic drama and entered into a decisive struggle against classicism. Having lost all connection with advanced social thought, classicism during the years of the Restoration turned into an official style of the Bourbon monarchy. The connection of classicism with the reactionary ideology of the legitimist monarchy, the alienation of its aesthetic principles to the tastes of broad democratic strata, its routine and inertness, which prevented the free development of new trends in art - all this gave rise to that temperament and social passion that distinguished the struggle of the romantics against the classics.

These features of romanticism, along with its characteristic condemnation of bourgeois reality, made it close to the critical realism that was being formed at the same time, which in this period was, as it were, part of the romantic movement. No wonder the greatest theorists of romanticism were both the romantic Hugo and the realist Stendhal. We can say that the realism of Stendhal, Mérimée and Balzac was painted in romantic tones, and this was especially pronounced in the dramatic works of the last two.

The struggle of romanticism with classicism in the 1920s was expressed mainly in literary controversy(Stendhal's work "Racine and Shakespeare", Hugo's preface to his drama "Cromwell"). Romantic drama penetrated the stages of French theaters with difficulty. Theaters were still strongholds of classicism. But the romantic drama in those years had an ally in the person of melodrama, which had established itself in the repertoire of the boulevard theaters in Paris and had a great influence on the tastes of the public, on modern drama and stage art.

Having lost during the years of the Consulate and the Empire the direct revolutionary character that distinguished the plays of Monvel and Lamartelier, the melodrama retained the features of the genre born by the democratic theater of Paris. This was expressed both in the choice of heroes, usually rejected by society and laws or suffering from injustice, and in the nature of the plots, usually built on a sharp clash of contrastingly depicted principles of good and evil. This conflict, for the sake of the moral feeling of the democratic public, has always been resolved by the victory of good, or, in any case, by the punishment of vice. The democratism of the genre was also manifested in the general accessibility of melodrama, which, long before the appearance of the literary and theatrical manifestos of the romantics, rejected all the restrictive laws of classicism and practically affirmed one of the basic principles of romantic theory - the principle of complete freedom of artistic creativity. The installation of the melodramatic theater was also democratic, aiming at the maximum interest of the viewer in the events of the play. After all, entertaining as a feature of the general accessibility of art was part of the concept of folk theater, the traditions of which theorists and practitioners of romanticism wanted to revive. Striving for the greatest power of emotional impact on the viewer, the theater of melodrama intensively used a variety of means from the arsenal of stage effects: "pure changes" of scenery, music, noise, light, etc.

Romantic drama will make extensive use of the techniques of melodrama, which in turn, in the twenties, by its nature ideological issues gradually approached a romantic drama.

The creator of the post-revolutionary melodrama and one of the "classics" of this genre was Guilbert de Pixerecourt (1773 - 1844). His numerous plays already interested the public with their enticing titles: "Victor, or the Child of the Forest" (1797), "Selina, or the Child of Mystery" (1800), "The Man of Three Persons" (1801) and others. plots and stage effects, were not devoid of humanistic and democratic tendencies. In the drama "Victor, or the Child of the Forest" Pixerekur gave the image of a young foundling who does not know his parents, which, however, does not prevent him from commanding universal respect for his virtues. In addition, his father in the end turns out to be a nobleman who became the leader of a gang of robbers and embarked on this path in order to punish vice and protect the weak. In the play "The Man of Three Persons", a virtuous and courageous hero, a Venetian patrician, unjustly condemned by the Doge and the Senate and forced to hide under different names, exposes a criminal conspiracy and ultimately saves his homeland.

Pixerekur was generally attracted by the images of strong and noble heroes who take on the high mission of fighting injustice. In the melodrama "Tekeli" (1803), he refers to the image of the hero of the national liberation movement in Hungary. Echoes of social conflicts sounded in the melodramas of Pixerecour, softened by moralizing didacticism and an emphasis on external showiness.

Of the works of another well-known author of melodramas, Louis Charles Quesnier (1762 - 1842), the play "The Thief Magpie" (1815) had the greatest success in France and abroad. In it, the democratic tendencies of melodrama manifested themselves almost with the greatest force. With great sympathy, ordinary people from the people are depicted in the play - the heroine of the play, Annette, a servant in the house of a wealthy farmer, and her father, a soldier who was forced to flee the army for insulting an officer. Annette is accused of stealing silverware. An unjust judge sentences her to death. And only an accidental discovery of the missing silver in the magpie's nest saves the heroine. The melodrama Kenye was well known in Russia. The story of M. S. Shepkin about the tragic fate of the serf actress who played the role of Annette was used by A. I. Herzen in the story "The Thieving Magpie".

Over the course of the 1920s, melodrama acquires an increasingly gloomy hue, becoming romanticized, so to speak.

So, in the famous melodrama of Victor Ducange (1783 - 1833) "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Gambler" (1827), the theme of man's struggle with fate sounds tense. Her hero, an ardent young man, rushes into card game, seeing in it the illusion of a struggle over rock. Falling under the hypnotic power of the excitement of the game, he loses everything, becomes a beggar. Overwhelmed by the persistent thought of cards and winnings, he becomes a criminal and eventually dies, almost killing his own son. Through the heaps of horrors and all sorts of stage effects, this melodrama reveals a serious and significant theme - the condemnation of modern society, where youthful aspirations, heroic impulses to fight fate turn into evil, selfish passions. The play entered the repertoire of the greatest tragic actors of the first half of the 19th century.

In the years 1830 - 1840 French dramaturgy and new themes appear in the theatrical repertoire, born of a new stage in the economic and political development of the country. The popular masses and democratic intelligentsia, who made the revolution of 1830, were republican and perceived the creation of the July Monarchy as a manifestation of a reaction hostile to the interests of the people and the country. The destruction of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic becomes the political slogan of the democratic forces of France. The ideas of utopian socialism, perceived by the masses as ideas of social equality and the elimination of contradictions between the rich and the poor, are beginning to have a significant influence on social thought.

The theme of wealth and poverty acquired particular relevance in the context of the unprecedented enrichment of the bourgeois elite and the ruin and impoverishment of petty-bourgeois circles and workers, which was so characteristic of the July Monarchy.

Bourgeois-protective dramaturgy solved the problem of poverty and wealth as a problem of personal human dignity: wealth was interpreted as a reward for diligence, frugality and a virtuous life. Other writers, addressing this topic, sought to evoke sympathy and sympathy for the honest poor and condemned the cruelty and vices of the rich.

Of course, the ideological instability of petty-bourgeois democracy was reflected in such a moralistic interpretation of social contradictions. And in this case, decisive importance was attached to the moral qualities of a person, and the reward of honest poverty in such plays most often turned out to be unexpected wealth. And yet, despite their inconsistency, such works had a certain democratic orientation, were imbued with the pathos of condemning social injustice, and aroused sympathy for ordinary people.

The anti-monarchist theme and criticism of social inequality have become indisputable hallmarks social melodrama, in the 30s - 40s associated with the democratic traditions of the French theater of the previous decades. Its creator was Felix Pia (1810 - 1899). The work of a democratic writer, a republican and a member of the Paris Commune, had a great influence on theatrical life during the years of the July Monarchy. His best plays reflect the growth of revolutionary sentiment between the two revolutions of 1830-1848.

In 1835, on the stage of one of the democratic theaters in Paris, the Ambigue-Comique, the historical drama Ango, written by Pia in collaboration with Auguste Luche, was staged. Creating this anti-monarchist drama, Pia directed it against King Francis I, around whose name the noble historiography linked the legend of the national hero - the king-knight, enlightener and humanist. Pia wrote: "We attacked the royal power in the person of the most brilliant, most charming monarch." The drama was full of sharp political allusions to the monarchy of Louis Philippe and daring attacks against the royal power - "The court is a bunch of scoundrels, headed by the most shameless of them all - the king!" and so on.

Despite the huge interest generated by the production, after thirty performances it was banned.

Pia's most significant work was his social melodrama The Parisian Ragged Man, presented for the first time in Paris at the Porte Saint-Martin Theater in May 1847. The play was a great and lasting success. She attracted the attention of Herzen, who gave in "Letters from France" a detailed analysis of the melodrama and the performance of the famous actor! Frederic Lemaitre, who played the title role. The ideological pathos of the play is an expression of the growing protest of the democratic masses against the high society of the July Monarchy, against bankers, stock speculators, titled rich and swindlers, seized with a thirst for enrichment, drowning in debauchery and luxury.

The main storyline of the play is the story of the rise and fall of the banker Hoffmann. In the prologue of the play, Pierre Garus, ruined and not inclined to earn a living by labor, kills and robs an artel worker on the Seine embankment. In the first act, the murderer and robber is already an important and respected person. Hiding his name and past, he skillfully took advantage of his prey, became a prominent banker - Baron Hoffmann. But he did not forget the former manners of a criminal.

Baron Hoffmann and the world of the rich, stained with blood, are opposed in the melodrama by an honest poor man, a rag-picker father Jean, a defender of innocence and a champion of justice, who was an accidental witness to the crime that marked the beginning of the career of Harus-Hoffmann. At the end of the play, Hoffmann is exposed and punished.

The happy ending of the play, although it did not correspond to the truth of life, expressed the social optimism inherent in democratic melodrama - the belief in the regularity of the victory of good and justice over the forces of evil.

Without delving into the essence and without giving a deep understanding of the social contradictions of life, the melodrama as a whole did not go further than philanthropic sympathy for the oppressed classes. The most significant ideological and artistic achievements were brought to the French theater by those playwrights whose works solved the great ideological tasks put forward by the struggle of democratic forces. The first of these was Victor Hugo.

Hugo

The greatest romantic playwright and theorist of the romantic theater was Victor Hugo. He was born into the family of a general in the Napoleonic army. The writer's mother came from a wealthy bourgeois family, sacredly adhering to monarchical views. Hugo's early literary experiences made him a reputation as a monarchist and classic. However, under the influence of the political atmosphere of pre-revolutionary France in the 1920s, Hugo overcomes his ideological and aesthetic conservatism, becomes a member of the romantic movement, and then the head of progressive, democratic romanticism.

The ideological pathos of Hugo's work was determined by the main features of his worldview: hatred of social injustice, protection of all the downtrodden and destitute, condemnation of violence and the preaching of humanism. These ideas fed Hugo's novels, his poetry, dramaturgy, journalism and political pamphlets.

Except for the early unpublished tragedies written by Hugo in his youth, the beginning of his drama is the romantic drama Cromwell (1827), the preface to which became the "tablets of romanticism." The main idea of ​​the preface is a rebellion against classicism and its aesthetic laws. “The time has come,” the author declares, “and it would be strange if in our era freedom, like light, penetrated everywhere, except for what is by nature freest of all in the world, except for the field of thought. Let us strike with a hammer at theories, poetics and systems! Let's knock down this old plaster that hides the facade of art! There are no rules, no patterns! .. Drama is a mirror in which nature is reflected. But if it is an ordinary mirror, with a flat and smooth surface, it will give a dull and flat reflection , true, but colorless; ... drama should be a concentrating mirror that ... turns flicker into light, and light into flame. Arguing with classicism, Hugo argues that the artist "should choose in the world of phenomena ... not the beautiful, but the characteristic" 1 .

1 (Hugo V. Selected dramas. L., 1937, v. 1, p. 37, 41.)

A very important place in the preface is occupied by the theory of the romantic grotesque, which was embodied and developed in the work of Hugo. "The grotesque is one of the great beauties of drama," writes Hugo. It is through the grotesque, which is understood by the author not only as an exaggeration, but as a combination, a combination of opposite and, as it were, mutually exclusive sides of reality, that the highest fullness of disclosure of this reality is achieved. Through the combination of high and low, tragic and funny, beautiful and ugly, we comprehend the diversity of life. For Hugo, Shakespeare was a model of an artist who ingeniously used the grotesque in art. The grotesque "penetrates everywhere, as if the lowest natures often have lofty impulses, then the highest ones often pay tribute to the vulgar and ridiculous. Therefore, he is always present on the stage ... he brings laughter, then horror into tragedy. He arranges meetings an apothecary with Romeo, three witches with Macbeth, a gravedigger with Hamlet."

Hugo does not deal directly with political issues. But the rebellious undertones of his manifesto spill out at times. The social meaning of the criticism of classicism is especially pronounced in Hugo's statement: "At the present time there is a literary old regime, like a political old regime."

"Cromwell" - this "impudently truthful drama", as Hugo called it - could not get on the stage. In the play, the author tried to embark on the artistic reform he had declared in the preface. However, he was prevented by the ideological uncertainty and dramatic immaturity of the work. The compositional friability, cumbersomeness and ineffectiveness became an insurmountable obstacle on the way of Hugo's work to the stage.

"Battle" at the premiere of "Ernani". Engraving by J. Granville

Hugo's next play, Marion Delorme (1829), is a brilliant embodiment of the ideological and creative principles of romanticism. In this drama, for the first time, Hugo has a romantic image of a hero of "low" origin, which is opposed to a court-aristocratic society. The plot of the play is based on the tragic conflict of the high and poetic love of the rootless youth Didier and the courtesan Marion Delorme with the inhumanity of royal power. Hugo determines the time of action very accurately - this is 1638. The author seeks to reveal the historical situation, the play talks about the war with Spain, the massacre of the Huguenots, the executions of duelists, there is a dispute about Corneille's "Sid", which premiered at the end of 1636, etc.

Didier and Marion are opposed by powerful enemies - the cruel, cowardly King Louis XIII, the "executioner in a red robe" - Cardinal Richelieu, a group of titled "golden youth", mocking lovers. Their forces are unequal, and the struggle cannot end otherwise than with the death of the heroes. But despite this, the moral beauty and purity of the spiritual world of Didier and Marion, their nobility, sacrifice and courage in the fight against evil are the key to the final triumph of good.

The image of Richelieu is written with special skill by the author. The cardinal is never shown to the audience, although the fate of all the heroes of the drama depends on him, all the characters, even the king, speak with horror about him. And only in the finale, in response to Marion's plea for the abolition of the death penalty, the ominous voice of the invisible cardinal, hidden behind the canopy of the stretcher, sounds: "No, she will not be canceled!"

"Marion Delorme" is a fine example of 19th century lyric poetry. Hugo's language in this play is lively and varied, Speaking with its naturalness, it is replaced by high pathos of love scenes, corresponding to the tragic love of Didier and Marion.

The drama, which was anti-royalist in nature, was banned.

Hugo's first drama to see the scene is Hernani (1830). This is typical romantic drama. The melodramatic events of the play take place against the spectacular backdrop of medieval Spain. There is no clearly expressed political program in this drama, but the whole ideological and emotional system affirms freedom of feelings, defends the right of a person to defend his honor. Heroes are endowed with exceptional passions and fortitude and show them to the fullest in deeds, and in sacrificial love, and in noble generosity, and in the cruelty of revenge. Rebellious motives are expressed in the image of the main character - the robber Ernani, one of the galaxy of romantic avengers. There is also a social dimension to the conflict between noble robber and the king, and the clash of sublime, bright love with the gloomy world of feudal-knightly morality, which determine the tragic outcome of the drama. In accordance with the requirements of romanticism, all the most important events, which were reported by messengers in classicist tragedies, take place here on the stage. The action of the play was not limited by any classicist unities. The impetuous rhythms of the characters' emotional speech broke the slowly solemn sound of the Alexandrian verse of the classicist drama.

The drama "Ernani" was staged at the beginning of 1830 by the theater "Comédie Française". The performance went on in an atmosphere of stormy passions and a struggle that took place in the auditorium between the "classics" and the "romantics". The production of Hernani in the best theater in Paris was a major victory for romanticism. She announced about early approval romantic drama on the French stage.

After the July Revolution of 1830, romanticism became the leading theatrical trend. In 1831, Hugo's drama "Marion Delorme" was staged, which was banned in the last years of the Bourbons. And after that, one after another, his plays enter the repertoire: The King Amuses himself (1832), Mary Tudor (1833), Ruy Blas (1838). Entertaining plots, full of vivid melodramatic effects, Hugo's dramas were a great success. But the main reason for their popularity was the socio-political orientation, which had a pronounced democratic character.

A scene from the drama "Ruy Blas" by V. Hugo. Theater "Renaissance", 1838

The democratic pathos of Hugo's dramaturgy is most fully expressed in the drama Ruy Blas. The action takes place in Spain at the end of the 17th century. But, like other plays by Hugo, written on historical subjects, "Ruy Blas" is not a historical drama. The play is based on poetic fiction, the audacity and boldness of which determine the incredible nature of the events and the contrast of the images.

Ruy Blas is a romantic hero, full of high intentions and noble impulses. Once he dreamed of the good of his country and even of all mankind and believed in his high appointment. But, having achieved nothing in life, he is forced to become a lackey of a rich and noble nobleman, close to the royal court. The evil and cunning owner of Ruy Blaza is eager to take revenge on the queen. To do this, he gives the footman the name and all the titles of his relative - the dissolute Don Caesar de Bazan. The imaginary Don Caesar is to become the queen's lover. The proud queen - the lackey's mistress - such is the insidious plan. Everything is going according to plan. But the footman turns out to be the most noble, intelligent and worthy person at court. Among people to whom power belongs only by birthright, only a lackey turns out to be a man of a statesman's mind. At a meeting of the royal council, Ruy Blas makes a big speech.

He stigmatizes the court clique that ruined the country and brought the state to the brink of death. It is not possible to disgrace the queen, although she fell in love with Ruy Blas. He drinks the poison and dies, taking the secret of his name with him.

The play combines deep lyricism and poetry with sharp political satire. Democratic pathos and denunciation of the greed and insignificance of the ruling circles, in essence, proved that the people themselves can govern their country. In this play, for the first time, Hugo uses the romantic method of mixing the tragic and the comic, introducing into the work the figure of the true Don Caesar, a ruined aristocrat, a merry fellow and a drunkard, a cynic and a breter.

In the theater "Ruy Blas" had an average success. The audience began to cool off towards romanticism. The bourgeois spectator, who was afraid of the revolution, associated with it the "frantic" romantic literature, transferred to it his sharply negative attitude towards any kind of rebelliousness, the manifestation of disobedience and self-will.

Hugo tried to create a new type of romantic drama - the epic tragedy The Burgraves (1843). However, the poetic merits of the play could not compensate for the lack of stage presence. Hugo wanted the youngsters who had fought for the Hernani in 1830 to attend the premiere of The Burgraves. One of the former associates of the poet answered him: "All the youth died." The drama failed, after which Hugo moved away from the theater.

Dumas

Hugo's closest associate in his struggle for romantic drama was Alexandre Dumas (Dumas père), author of the well-known trilogy about the Musketeers, the novel The Count of Monte Cristo and many others. classical works adventure literature. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Dumas was one of the most active participants in the romantic movement.

Dramaturgy occupies a significant place in the literary heritage of Dumas. He wrote sixty-six plays, most of which date from the 1930s and 1940s.

Literary and theatrical fame brought Dumas his first play - "Henry III and his court", staged in 1829 by the theater "Odeon". The success of Dumas' first drama was secured by a number of his subsequent plays: "Anthony" (1831), "Nelskaya Tower" (1832), "Kin, or Genius and Debauchery" (1836), etc.

A scene from the play "Anthony". A play by A. Dumas père

Dumas' plays are typical examples of romantic drama. He contrasted the prosaic everyday life of bourgeois modernity with the world of extraordinary heroes living in an atmosphere of violent passions, intense struggle, and acute dramatic situations. True, in the plays of Dumas there is not that strength and passion, democratic pathos and rebelliousness that distinguish the dramatic works of Hugo. But such dramas as "Henry III" and "Nelskaya Tower" showed the terrible side of the feudal-monarchical world, spoke about the crimes, cruelty and depravity of kings and the courtly-aristocratic circle. And plays from modern life ("Antony", "Kin") excited the democratic public by depicting the tragic fate of proud, courageous plebeian heroes who came into irreconcilable conflict with aristocratic society.

Dumas, like other romantic playwrights, used the techniques of melodrama, and this gave his plays a special entertaining and stage presence, although the abuse of melodrama brought him to the brink of bad taste when he fell into naturalism when depicting murders, executions, torture.

In 1847, Dumas opened the "Historical Theater" created by him with the play "Queen Margot", on the stage of which the events of the national history of France were to be shown. And although the theater did not last long (it was closed in 1849), it took a prominent place in the history of the boulevard theaters in Paris.

Over the years, progressive tendencies are eroded from Dumas's dramaturgy. The successful fashion writer Dumas renounces his former romantic hobbies and stands up for the bourgeois order.

In October 1848, the play "Catilina" written by him together with A. Macke was staged on the stage of the "Historical Theater" owned by Dumas. This performance, which provoked a sharp protest from A. I. Herzen, was enthusiastically received by the bourgeois public. She saw in the play history lesson"rebels" and the justification of the recent brutal massacre of the participants in the June workers' uprising.

Vigny

One of the prominent representatives of romantic drama was Alfred de Vigny. He belonged to an old noble family whose members fought against the French Revolution and went to the guillotine for the ideas of royalism. But Vigny was not like those embittered aristocrats who believed in the possibility of restoring pre-revolutionary royal France and blindly hated everything new. Human new era, he put freedom above all else, condemned despotism, but could not accept the contemporary bourgeois republic. He was repelled from reality not only by the consciousness of the doom of his class, but to an even greater extent by the assertion of bourgeois orders and mores. Nor could he understand the anti-bourgeois meaning of the revolutionary uprisings of the people and of France in the first half of the 1930s. All this determines the pessimistic character of Vigny's romanticism. The motifs of "world sorrow" bring Vigny's poetry closer to Byron's. But the rebelliousness and life-affirming power of Byron's tragic poetry are alien to Vigny. His Byronism is the proud loneliness of man in the midst of a world alien to him, the consciousness of hopelessness, tragic doom.

Vigny, like most romantics, gravitated towards the theater and loved Shakespeare. Vigny's translations of Shakespeare played a large role in promoting the work of the great English playwright in France, although Vigny significantly romanticized his work. The significance of Vigny's Shakespearean translations is also great in establishing romanticism on the French stage. The staging of the tragedy "Othello" at the theater "Comedy Francaise" in 1829 foreshadowed those fights between romantics and classics that soon broke out at the performances of Hugo's drama "Hernani".

Vigny's best dramatic work was his romantic drama Chatterton (1835). When creating the play, Vigny used some facts from the biography of the 18th century English poet Chatterton, but the drama is not biographical.

The play depicts the tragic fate of a poet who wants to preserve the independence of poetry and personal freedom in a world that does not care about poetry or freedom. But the meaning of the play is wider and deeper. Vigny brilliantly foresaw the hostility of the new era to genuine humanity and creativity, the embodiment of which is poetry. The tragedy of Chatterton is the tragedy of a man in an inhuman world. The love plot of the drama is full of inner meaning, because Vigny's play is at the same time a tragedy of femininity and beauty given into the power of a wealthy boor (the doom of Kitty Bell, turned into a slave by her husband, a rich manufacturer, a rude, greedy person).

The anti-bourgeois pathos of the drama is reinforced by an episode, important in the ideological sense, in which the workers ask the manufacturer to give a place to their comrade, crippled by the machine at the factory. Like Byron, who defended the interests of the workers in the House of Lords, the aristocrat de Vigny here turns out to be the ideological ally of the labor movement of the 1930s.

The play reveals the originality of Vigny's romanticism. From the dramas of Hugo and Dumas, "Chatterton" differs in the absence of romantic fury and elation. The characters are alive, deeply developed psychologically. The denouement of the drama is tragic - Chatterton and Kitty die. This is prepared by the logic of their characters, their relationship with the world, and is not a melodramatic effect. The author himself emphasized the simplicity of the plot and the focus of the action in the inner world of the hero: "This is ... the story of a man who wrote a letter in the morning and awaits an answer until evening; the answer comes and kills him."

Musset

A special place in the history of French romantic theater and romantic drama belongs to Alfred de Musset. His name is inseparable from the names of the founders of romanticism. Musset's novel "Confessions of a Son of the Century" is one of the biggest events in the literary life of France. The novel creates an image of a modern young man, belonging to the generation that entered life during the Restoration, when the events of the Great French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had already died down, when "the powers of God and men were actually restored, but faith in them disappeared forever." Musset urged his generation to "get carried away by despair": "To mock fame, religion, love, everything in the world is a great comfort to those who do not know what to do."

This attitude to life is also expressed in Musset's dramaturgy. Along with a strong lyrical and dramatic jet, there is laughter here. But this is not a satire that castigates social vices - it is an evil and subtle irony directed against everything: against the everyday prose of our time, devoid of beauty, heroism, poetic fantasy, and against high, romantic impulses. Musset calls to laugh even at the cult of despair proclaimed by him, ironically remarking: "... it's so nice to feel unhappy, although in reality you only have emptiness and boredom."

Irony was not only the main principle of comedy, it also contained anti-romantic tendencies, which were especially clearly manifested in his dramaturgy of the 40s and 50s.

Musset's plays written in the 1930s (Venetian Night, Marianne's Whims, Fantasio) are brilliant examples of a new type of romantic comedy. Such, for example, is "Venetian Night" (1830). The plot of the play, as it were, foreshadows the bloody drama traditional for this style with violent love, jealousy and murder. The reveler and gambler Razetta is passionately in love with the beautiful Lauretta who reciprocates. The girl's guardian is going to marry her off to a German prince. Ardent Rasetta acts decisively. He sends a letter and a dagger to his beloved - she must kill the prince and escape Venice with Razetta. If Lauretta does not do this, he will kill himself. But suddenly the heroes begin to behave like ordinary people, inclined to be guided not by the dictates of passions, but rather by the voice of common sense. Lauretta, on reflection, decides to break with her violent lover and become the wife of the prince. Razetta also decides to leave the fiction about the murder of a rival or suicide. Together with a company of young rake and their girlfriends, he sails away in a gondola to have dinner and, towards the end, expresses the wish that all the extravagances of lovers end just as well.

The comedy Fantasio (1834) is permeated with sad irony. This is a lyrical play, the content of which is the author's thoughts, a bizarre play of thoughts and feelings, embodied in colorful, funny and sad, but always grotesque images. The hero of the comedy, bearing an expressive name, Fantasio, a melancholy rake and a witty philosopher, is alone among his sensible friends. However, in his opinion, everyone is lonely: each person is a world closed in himself, inaccessible to others. "In what loneliness these human bodies live!" he exclaims, looking at the cheerful celebratory crowd. At times he looks like a madman, but his madness is the highest wisdom that despises the vulgar worldly common sense. The image of Fantasio acquires complete completeness when he dresses in the costume of a royal jester, performs a chivalrous feat, saving the Bavarian princess Elsbet from the ridiculous Prince of Mantua who is wooing her. The transformation of Fantasio into a jester finally clarifies his essence, as if establishing his closeness to the wise jesters of Shakespeare and the brightly theatrical characters of Gozzi's comedies.

Often, comedies end with a tragic ending - "Whims of Marianne" (1833), "No joking with love" (1834).

The action in Musset's comedies takes place in different countries and cities, the time of action is not specified. On the whole, a special conditional theatrical world emerges in these plays, where underlined anachronisms draw attention to the modernity of the events and images depicted.

In the play "They Don't Joke with Love" it is not the events that are important, but the psychological experiences and the spiritual world of the characters, which is revealed in all the complexity and inconsistency of spiritual impulses, emotions and reflections. The hero of the play, the young nobleman Perdikan, is destined to be Camille's bride. Without realizing it, young people love each other. But an obstacle to their happiness is Camilla's monastic upbringing, which inspired her with the idea of ​​the deceitfulness of men, the horror of marriage. Camilla refuses Perdican. Rejected and insulted, he, wanting to take revenge on the offender, begins to court his foster sister, the ingenuous peasant girl Razetta, and even promises to marry her. In the end, Camilla and Perdican confess their mutual love to each other. Witness to this explanation, Razetta, unable to bear the deception, dies. Shocked by what has happened, Camille and Perdican part forever.

This play, which has become, in essence, a psychological drama, is clothed by Musset in an original, truly innovative form of play. Musset brings a chorus of local peasants onto the stage. This person is auxiliary and at the same time conditional. The chorus knows everything, even what happens within the walls of the castle; the chorus enters into a casual conversation with other characters, commenting and evaluating their actions. This method of introducing the epic beginning into the drama enriched the dramaturgy with new expressive means. The lyrical, subjective, usually present in romantic images, here was "objectified" in the face of the choir. The heroes of the play, freed from the author's lyricism, seemed to acquire independence from the author's will, which over time will become inherent in realistic drama.

Musset's social pessimism is most pronounced in the drama Lorenzaccio (1834). This drama is the fruit of Musset's reflections on the tragic doom of attempts to change the course of history in a revolutionary way. Musset tried in "Lorenzaccio" to comprehend the experience of two revolutions and a number of revolutionary uprisings, which were especially rich in the political life of France in the early 30s. The plot is based on events from the medieval history of Florence. Lorenzo Medici (Lorenzaccio) hates despotism. Dreaming of the feat of Brutus, he plots to kill the tyrant Alexandra Medici and give freedom to the fatherland. This act of terrorism must be supported by the Republicans. Lorenzaccio kills the duke, but nothing changes. The Republicans are hesitant to speak out. Separate outbursts of popular discontent are suppressed by soldiers. Lorenzo, who has a bounty on his head, is killed by a treacherous stab in the back. The crown of Florence is presented to the new duke.

Tragedy speaks of the impossibility of a social revolution; paying tribute to the spiritual strength of the hero, condemns the romance of an individual revolutionary act. With no less force, tragedy condemns people who sympathize with the idea of ​​freedom, but do not dare to fight for it, who are not able to lead the people. Lorenzo's words sound directly addressed to his contemporaries: "If the republicans ... behave as they should, it will be easy for them to establish a republic, the most beautiful of all that has ever bloomed on earth. Let the people take their side." But the people are deceived, passive, doomed...

The drama "Lorenzaccio" was written in a free manner, with complete disregard for the canons of classicism. The play is divided into thirty-nine short scenes-episodes, the alternation of which contributes to the rapid development of the action, the breadth of coverage of events, as well as the disclosure of various actions, facets of the characters of the main characters.

The drama has strong realistic, Shakespearean features, expressed in a broad and vivid depiction of the era, shown in its social contrasts, with historically determined cruelty of morals. The characters of the heroes are also realistic, devoid of the straightforward schematism of the classicist drama. However, in the person of Lorenzaccio, the principle of deheroization is consistently carried out. The tragic fault of Lorenzaccio lies in the fact that, acting as an enemy of the world of violence and corruption, he himself becomes part of it. However, this "removal" of the lofty principle does not weaken the dramatic tension of the complex, inner life. The image of the protagonist betrays his closeness to the portrait created by Musset of a gloomy, disappointed and tragically desperate "son of the century".

After Lorenzaccio, Musset does not turn to big social topics. Since the second half of the 30s, he has been writing witty and elegant comedies from the life of secular society (Candlestick, 1835; Caprice, 1837). External action in comedies of this type is almost absent, and all interest lies in the word, moreover, the word appears here not in the theatrically emphasized forms of classicist or romantic drama, but in the form of conversations and dialogues that preserve the lively warmth of casual colloquial speech.

Musset has been developing since the mid-1940s a peculiar genre of proverbial comedies, which had a purely salon-aristocratic character. Musset's appeal to proverbial comedies spoke of a certain decline in the playwright's creative tone. But probably, for the romantic writer himself, this was a means of escaping from the hated world of bourgeois mediocrity, the triumph of coarse egoistic passions hostile to beauty and poetry.

The stage fate of Musset's dramaturgy is very characteristic of the French theater of the period of the July Monarchy. Musset's early plays, the most significant in ideological terms and innovative in form, were not accepted by the French theater.

The theatricality of Musset's dramaturgy was discovered in Russia. In 1837, the comedy "Caprice" (under the title "Women's mind is better than any thoughts") was played in St. Petersburg. After the great success of the play in the performance of Russian theaters, it was staged at the French theater in St. Petersburg for the benefit of the actress Allan, who, returning to France, included it in the repertoire of the Comedie Francaise theater.

In general, the dramatic works of Musset, without taking a prominent place in the repertoire of the French theater of that time, had a great influence on the ideological and aesthetic image of the French theater of the 20th century.

Merimee

Realistic tendencies in the development of French drama are expressed in the works of Prosper Mérimée. Merimee's worldview was formed under the influence of the ideas of enlightenment philosophy. Post-revolutionary reality, especially the time of the Restoration, aroused in the writer a feeling of protest and condemnation. This brought Merimee closer to the romanticism of the democratic direction. But for romantics like Hugo and Dumas, the main thing was their romantic rebelliousness, their violent heroes, who embodied the freedom of the human spirit; in Mérimée's work, the romantic rebellion is replaced by an acutely critical and even satirical depiction of reality itself.

Merimee took part in the struggle of the romantics against classicism, releasing in 1825 a collection of plays called "The Theater of Clara Gasul". Calling a Spanish actress the author of the collection, Merimee explained by this the color of the plays written in the style of the comedies of the old Spanish theater. And the romantics, as you know, saw in the Spanish Renaissance theater the features of a romantic theater - folk, free, not recognizing any school rules and canons of classicism.

In the Clara Gasoul Theatre, Merimee showed a gallery of bright, sometimes bizarre, but always life-like images. Officers and soldiers, spies, nobles of various ranks and positions, monks, Jesuits, secular ladies and soldier's girlfriends, slaves, peasants - these are the heroes of comedies. One of the themes that permeate the collection is the denunciation of the morals of the clergy. In the sharply grotesque images of monks and priests, overwhelmed by carnal passions, one can feel the pen of a follower of Diderot and Voltaire.

The characters of Merimee's comedy are strong and passionate people, they are in exceptional positions and do extraordinary things. But to call them the heroes of a romantic drama is still impossible. In the "Theater of Clara Gasul" there is no cult of a strong individual, opposed to society. The heroes of these plays are devoid of romantic subjectivity and do not represent a direct expression of the thoughts and feelings of the author. In addition, romantic grief and disappointment are completely alien to them. If the romantic drama gave hyperbolic images of extraordinary heroes, then the numerous images of Mérimée's plays created a picture of social mores as a whole. With the romantic coloring of Merimee's characters, the irony that reduces the romantic mood of the heroes is most strongly felt in them.

So, in the comedy "African Love" Merimee laughs at the improbability of the "frantic" passions of his heroes, revealing the theatrical and sham character of romantic fury. One of the heroes of the drama, the Bedouin Zane, is in love with the slave of his friend Haji Numan, so in love that he cannot live without her. However, it turns out that this love is not the only one of the ardent African. Struck by the hand of Haji Numan, he, dying, reports: "... there is a black woman ... she is pregnant ... from me." Shocked by the death of his friend, Numan stabs an innocent slave with a dagger. But at that moment a servant appears and says: "... dinner is served, the performance is over." "Ah! - says Haji Numan, pleased with such a denouement, - then it's another matter." All the "killed" stand up, and the actress, who played the role of a slave, appeals to the public with a request to be indulgent towards the author.

To reduce romantic pathos, Merimee willingly uses the technique of colliding a high, pathetic style of speech with the usual, colloquial and even vulgar language of the street.

The satirical features of the characters from the "Theater of Clara Gasul" are most fully expressed in the comedy "The Carriage of Holy Gifts", where the morals of the highest state administration and the "princes of the church" in the person of the viceroy, his courtiers and the bishop, who all find themselves in in the hands of the nimble young actress Perichola.

In the Clara Gasoul Theatre, Merimee gave a brilliant example of creative freedom and refusal to follow the canons of the normative aesthetics of classicism. The cycle of plays united in this collection was, as it were, a creative laboratory of the writer, who was looking for and finding a new approach to depicting characters and passions, new means of expression and dramatic forms.

The appearance of Mérimée's play "Jacquerie" (1828), dedicated to the depiction of the anti-feudal uprising of French peasants - "Jacques" in the 14th century, is connected with thoughts about the national historical drama.

Mérimée's views on the laws of historical development and, in particular, on the significance of the people in history are close to French romantic historiography, and in particular to the historical concept of Thierry, who in his Letters on the History of France (1827) wrote: called a hero... you have to fall in love with an entire nation and follow its fate for centuries."

The play was created in an atmosphere of revolutionary upsurge that preceded the events of 1830. "Jacquerie" is an anti-feudal and anti-noble play that asserted the inevitability of an explosion of popular anger directed against an unjust and cruel social order.

In "Jacquerie" the innovative courage of Mérimée the playwright was manifested. The hero of the drama is the people. The tragedy of his fate, his struggle and defeat form the plot-plot basis of the play, which includes many motives associated with the images and fates of people, participants in the peasant war, both allies and enemies of the "zhaks". Each of them has his own reason for joining or opposing the uprising. The fate of individual heroes of the "Jacquerie" creates a generalized image of the tragic fate of the people, speaks of the historical inevitability of its defeat. With merciless truthfulness, Merimee reproduces cruel and rude morals, predatory and stupid arrogance of knights, the betrayal of wealthy bourgeois townspeople, the limited and narrow horizons of the peasants - "Jacques".

The new idea of ​​tragedy, the main character of which is the people, made it impossible to preserve the old classicist form. There are about forty actors in the Jacquerie, not counting the participants in the mass scenes. The action takes place in many different places: in forests, on village squares, on battlefields, in knight's castles, monasteries, in the city hall, in the camp of rebels, etc. Focusing on Shakespeare, following the German "stormers" and romantics, Mérimée replaces the traditional five acts of classicist tragedy with thirty six scenes. The time of action also goes far beyond the "unity of time". All this destroyed the "narrow form" of classicist tragedy and demanded the freedom that the theoreticians of the new art spoke about. The artistic features of the "Jacquerie" fully meet the requirements for tragedy by Stendhal in his work "Racine and Shakespeare" (1825).

"Jacquerie" was not included in the repertoire of the French theater, but the very appearance of such a play testified to the creative power of realistic tendencies in the development of French romantic drama in the 30s?

The significance of the "Jacquerie" is also great in the history of the drama of modern times, where, along with Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" (1825), it is a classic example of a folk tragedy. The experience of "Scenes from Feudal Times", as Mérimée called his play, was used by Pushkin in his work on an unfinished drama known as "Scenes from Knightly Times".

Great was Merimee's interest in Russia, its history, literature and language. Fascinated by the creation of folk historical tragedy, the playwright devotes a number of historical works to the past of Russia, Ukraine - "Cossacks of Ukraine and their last chieftains", "Razin's Rebellion", etc. Merimee introduced the French to the best works of modern Russian literature, translated " queen of spades", "Shot", "Gypsy" and a number of Pushkin's poems, as well as Gogol's "Inspector" and Turgenev's stories. The Russian literary community highly appreciated the writer's merits, electing him an honorary member of the Society of Russian Literature Lovers.

Scribe

Social conditions in France gave rise not only to romantic dissatisfaction with reality. The country was rapidly moving along the path of capitalist development. The bourgeoisie became an ever more significant force, and in proportion to this, its conservatism intensified.

The sober and practical nature of the bourgeois was alien to romanticism with its rebellious impulses and violent passions. The civic pathos of classicism was no less alien to her. The heroic period of bourgeois revolutions is over. The bourgeois spectator wanted to see a playful vaudeville on the stage of the theater, a comedy not without satirical features, but not too evil. He was not averse to watching the historical drama, the content of which turned out to be adapted to the ideological level of a prosperous bourgeois man in the street.

The obligatory qualities of this dramaturgy were lightness and entertaining. The authors were required to master technical techniques, the ability to build a fascinating and spectacular plot, as well as knowledge of the psychology of the theatrical audience. Trying to entertain their viewers, the creators of this kind of "well-made plays" glorified the spirit and aspirations of their sensible, practical era, propagated the morality of the modern bourgeois, surrounding his prose image with a halo of virtue, praising his mind, energy and luck.

With the greatest completeness, the tastes of the bourgeois audience were embodied in the works of Augustin Eugene Scribe (1791 - 1861). Herzen superbly defined the social image of Scribe and the social meaning of his dramaturgy, calling him a writer of the bourgeoisie: "... he loves her, he is loved by her, he adapted to her concepts and her tastes so that he himself lost all others; Scribe is a courtier, caresser , preacher, gaer, teacher, jester and poet of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois are crying in the theater, touched by their own virtue, painted by Scribe, touched by the clerical heroism and the poetry of the counter "1. He was a prolific playwright. Possessing unconditional talent, diligence and guided by the principles of a "well-made play", Scribe wrote about four hundred dramatic works.

1 (Herzen A.I. Sobr. soch., in 30 vols. M., 1955, v. 5, p. 34.)

Among the most popular works of Scribe are "Bertrand and Raton" (1833), "Ladder of Glory" (1837), "Glass of Water" (1840), "Andrienne Lecouvreur" (1849).

Most of his plays were performed on the stage of the French theater with invariable success. Scribe's dramaturgy gained fame outside of France as well.

Despite their superficiality, Scribe's plays also have indisputable merits and are entertaining. His comedies are also successful with audiences who are extremely far from the bourgeois audience for which the playwright created his plays.

Starting with vaudeville in the 1930s, Scribe moves on to comedies, vaudeville with complex, skillfully designed intrigue, with a number of subtly noticed social and everyday features of his time. The simple philosophy of his comedies was to strive for material prosperity, which, according to the author, contains the only happiness. Scribe's heroes are cheerful, enterprising bourgeois, who do not burden themselves with any thoughts about the meaning of life, about duty, about ethical and moral issues. They have no time to think, they must quickly and deftly arrange their affairs: marry profitably, make dizzying careers, plant and intercept letters, eavesdrop, track down; they do not have time for thoughts and experiences - they must act, enrich themselves.

One of Scribe's best plays was the famous comedy Glass of Water, or Causes and Effects (1840), which went around all world stages. It belongs to historical plays, but Scribe needs history only for names, dates, juicy details, and not for revealing historical patterns. The intrigue of the play is based on the struggle of two political opponents: Lord Bolingbroke and the Duchess of Marlborough, Queen Anne's favorite. Through the mouth of Bolingbroke, Scribe reveals his "philosophy" of history: "You probably, like most people, believe that political catastrophes, revolutions, the fall of empires are caused by serious, deep and important reasons ... Mistake! Heroes, great people conquer states and guide them, but they themselves, these great people, are at the mercy of their passions, their whims, their vanity, that is, the smallest and most pitiful human ... feelings ... "

The bourgeois spectator, on whom Scribe counted, was infinitely flattered that he was no worse than famous heroes and monarchs. The transformation of the story into a brilliantly constructed stage anecdote suited this spectator quite well. A glass of water spilled on the dress of the English queen led to the conclusion of peace between England and France. Bolingbroke got the ministry because he was good at dancing the sarabande, but he lost it because of a cold. But all this absurdity is clothed in such a brilliant theatrical form, it is given such an infectiously joyful, impetuous rhythm of life that the play has not left the stage for many years.

balzac

The realistic aspirations of the French drama of the 1930s and 1940s manifested themselves with the greatest force and fullness in the dramaturgy of the greatest French novelist Honore de Balzac. The artist-thinker gave in his works an analysis of social life and the history of the mores of the era.

He sought to use the exact laws of science in his work. Based on the successes of the natural sciences, and in particular on the teachings of Saint-Hilaire on the unity of organisms, Balzac proceeded in depicting society from the fact that its development is subject to certain laws. Considering the thoughts and passions of people as a "social phenomenon", he argued, following the enlighteners, that a person by nature is "neither good nor evil," but "the desire for profit ... develops his bad inclinations." The task of the writer, Balzac believed, is to depict the action of these passions, conditioned by the social environment, the mores of society and the character of people.

Balzac's work was an important stage in the development and theoretical understanding of the method critical realism. The painstaking collection and study of life facts, their depiction "as they really are" did not turn in Balzac into a mundane, naturalistic everyday writing. He said that the writer, adhering to "careful reproduction", should "study the foundations or one common basis of these social phenomena, embrace the open meaning of a huge collection of types, passions and events ... "

Theater has always interested Balzac. Obviously, he, who believed that a writer should be an educator and mentor, was attracted by the accessibility and power of the impact of theatrical art on the public.

Balzac was critical of contemporary French theater and especially its repertoire. He condemned romantic drama and melodrama as plays that were far from the truth of Life. Balzac was no less negative about pseudo-realistic bourgeois drama. Balzac sought to introduce the principles of critical realism into the theater, that great life truth that readers saw in his novels.

The path to creating a realistic play was difficult. In the early plays of Balzac, in his dramatic ideas, there is still a clear dependence on the romantic theater. Abandoning what he had planned, not being satisfied with what he had written, the writer in the 1920s and 1930s was looking for his own path in dramaturgy, he was still developing his own dramatic style, which began to emerge towards the end of this period, when the realistic principles of the art of Balzac the prose writer were most clearly defined.

From this time begins the most fruitful and mature period of Balzac's work as a playwright. During these years (1839 - 1848) Balzac wrote six plays: "The School of Marriage" (1839), "Vautrin" (1839), "Kinola's Hopes" (1841), "Pamela Giraud" (1843), "Businessman" (1844) , "Stepmother" (1848). Using the techniques and forms of various dramatic genres of artistic movements, Balzac gradually moved towards the creation of a realistic drama.

Having conceived several dramatic works, unlike the plays that filled the stage of the French theater at that time, Balzac wrote: “In the form of a trial balloon, I am writing a drama from petty-bourgeois life, without much fuss, as something insignificant, in order to see what kind of rumors the thing will cause completely” truthful ". However, this "insignificant" play was devoted to a very significant topic - the modern bourgeois family. "The School of Marriage" is a love story of an aging businessman Gerard and a young girl Adrienne, an employee of his company, and a fierce struggle of respectable members of his family and relatives against this "criminal" passions These virtuous defenders of morality turn out to be limited and cruel people, the culprits of the tragic outcome of events.

Such a solution to the family theme sharply contrasted Balzac's drama with a "well-made play." "School of matrimony"; was not staged, but took a prominent place in the history of the French theater, representing the first attempt at a realistic reflection of the life of modern society in drama.

In the following plays, Balzac significantly increases the features of melodrama, which are generally characteristic of his dramaturgy.

In this regard, the play "Vautrin" is indicative. The hero of this melodrama is the fugitive convict Vautrin, whose image has developed in such works by Balzac as "Father Goriot", "Shine and Poverty of Courtesans", etc. He is wanted by the police, while he, meanwhile, rotates in the circles of the Parisian aristocracy. Knowing her innermost secrets and being connected with the underworld of Paris, Vautrin becomes a truly powerful figure. In the course of the action, Vautrin, changing his appearance, appears either in the role of a stockbroker, or under the guise of an exquisite aristocrat or envoy, and in the final act, which is decisive for the outcome of the intrigue, he even "plays like Napoleon." All these transformations naturally "romanticize" the image. However, in addition to the direct plot meaning, they also acquire a different meaning, as if speaking of the fragility of the lines that separate the bandit from the respectable ideas of the bourgeois-aristocratic society. Obviously, the hidden meaning of Vautrin's "transformations" was well understood by the actor Frederic Lemaitre; playing this role, he gave his hero an unexpected resemblance ... to King Louis Philippe. This was one of the reasons why the drama, which was a great success with the audience of the theater "Port-Saint-Martin" (1840), was banned the day after the premiere of the play.

One of the best works of Balzac the playwright is the comedy "Businessman". This is a truthful and vivid satirical depiction of his contemporary mores. All the heroes of the play are seized with a thirst for enrichment and use any means to achieve this goal; and the question whether a man is a swindler and a criminal, or a respected businessman, is decided by the success or failure of his swindle.

Merchants and stockbrokers of various sizes and abilities, bankrupt society dandies, modest young people who rely on rich brides, and even servants bribed by their masters and in turn trading in their secrets take part in a fierce struggle.

The main face of the play is the businessman Mercade. This is a man of penetrating mind, strong will and great human charm. All this helps him extricate himself from seemingly hopeless situations. People who know his price well, creditors who are ready to put him in jail, succumb to his will and, convinced by a bold flight of thought, accuracy of calculations, are ready not only to believe him, but even to take part in his adventures. Merkade's strength lies in his lack of any illusions. He knows that in his modern world there are no connections between people, except for participation in the competitive struggle for profit. "Now ... feelings have been abolished, they have been supplanted by money," the businessman declares, "there remains only self-interest, for there is no longer a family, there are only individuals." In a society where human ties fall apart, the concept of honor and even honesty does not make any sense. Showing a five-franc coin, Mercada exclaims: "Here it is, the current honor! Be able to convince the buyer that your lime is sugar, and if you manage to get rich at the same time ... you will become a deputy, a peer of France, a minister."

The realism of Balzac manifested itself in comedy in a truthful depiction of social mores, in a sharp analysis of the modern society of "businessmen" as a certain social organism. When creating "Businessman", Balzac turned to the traditions of French comedy of the 17th - 18th centuries. Hence the generalization of images, the absence of everyday life, the harmony and logic of the development of the action and the well-known theatrical conventionality inherent in the very atmosphere in which the characters of the play act rather than live. The play is distinguished by a rather dry rationality and the absence in the images of those psychological shades and individual traits that turn a theatrical character into a lively and inexhaustibly complex face.

Conceived back in 1838, the comedy "Businessman" was completed only six years later. During the life of the author, the play was not performed. Balzac wanted Frederic Lemaitre to play the role of Mercade, but the Porte Saint-Martin Theater demanded significant changes in the text of the play from the author, which Balzac did not agree to.

The dramatic work of Balzac is completed by the drama "The Stepmother", in which he came close to the task of creating a "truthful play". The author defined the nature of the play, calling it a "family drama". Analyzing family relationships, Balzac studied public mores. And this gave great social meaning to the "family drama", which seemed to be far from any social problems.

Behind the external well-being and peaceful calm of a prosperous bourgeois family, a picture of the struggle of passions, political convictions is gradually revealed, a drama of love, jealousy, hatred, family tyranny and paternal concern for the happiness of children is revealed.

The action of the play takes place in 1829 in the house of a wealthy manufacturer, the former general of the Napoleonic army, Comte de Grandchamp. The main characters of the play are the wife of Count Gertrude, his daughter from his first marriage, Pauline, and the ruined Count Ferdinand de Markandal, who is now the manager of the general's factory. Polina and Ferdinand love each other. But they face insurmountable obstacles. The fact is that Ferdinand and Polina are modern Romeo and Juliet. General Grandshan, in his political convictions, is a militant Bonapartist who passionately hates everyone who began to serve the Bourbons. And that is exactly what Ferdinand's father did. Ferdinand himself lives under a false name and knows that the general will never give his daughter to the son of a "traitor".

Prevents the love of Ferdinand and Pauline and her stepmother Gertrude. Even before her marriage, she was Ferdinand's mistress. When he went bankrupt, then, in order to save him from poverty, Gertrude married a wealthy general, hoping that he would soon die and she, rich and free, would return to Ferdinand. Fighting for her love, Gertrude leads a cruel intrigue that should separate the lovers.

The image of the stepmother takes on the features of a melodramatic villainess in the play, and with it the whole drama eventually takes on the same character. Motifs of the melodramatic and romantic theater break into the atmosphere of the psychological drama: the lulling of the heroine with the help of opium, the theft of letters, the threat of exposing the secret of the hero, and, in the end, the suicide of the virtuous girl and her lover.

However, true to his rule of finding a “common basis” for phenomena and revealing the hidden meaning of passions and events, Balzac does this in his drama as well. At the heart of all the tragic events of "Stepmother" are the phenomena of social life - the ruin of an aristocrat, a marriage of convenience common to the bourgeois world, and the enmity of political opponents.

You can understand the significance of this play in the development of realistic drama by familiarizing yourself with the author's intention of "Stepmother". Balzac said: It's about not about crude melodrama ... No, I dream of the drama of a salon where everything is cold, calm, kind. Men complacently play whist by the light of candles raised above soft green lampshades. Women chat and laugh as they work on embroidery. Drink patriarchal tea. In a word, everything proclaims order and harmony. But there, inside, passions are agitated, the drama smolders, only to burst into flames later. That's what I want to show."

Balzac was not able to fully embody this idea and free himself from the attributes of "rough melodrama", but he was able to brilliantly foresee the contours of the drama of the future. Balzac's idea of ​​revealing the "terrible", that is, the tragic in everyday life, was embodied only in the dramaturgy of the late 19th century.

The Stepmother was staged at the Historical Theater in 1848. Of all the dramatic works of Balzac, she was the most successful with the public.

More than any of his contemporary playwrights, Balzac did more to create a new type of realistic social drama capable of revealing the full complexity of the real contradictions of a mature bourgeois society. However, in his dramatic work, he could not rise to that comprehensive coverage of life phenomena, which is so characteristic of his best realistic novels. Even in the most successful plays, Balzac's realistic strength was to a certain extent weakened and reduced. The reason for this is the general lag of the French dramaturgy of the middle of the 19th century behind the novel, in the influence of the commercial bourgeois theater.

But for all that, Balzac occupies an honorable place among the fighters for the realistic theater; France.

French theater

In the performances of the late 18th - the first half of the 19th century, there was a tendency to expand the boundaries of real action, there was a rejection of the laws of the unity of time and place.

The changes that affected the dramatic art could not but affect the scenery design of the stage: not only the stage equipment, but also the theater premises required a radical reorganization, but in mid-nineteenth century, it was very difficult to make such changes.

These circumstances allowed representatives of amateur pantomime schools to take their rightful place among the actors of the New Age, they became the best performers of works of innovative dramaturgy.

Gradually, picturesque panoramas, dioramas and neoramas became widespread in the performing arts of the 19th century. L. Daguerre was one of the most famous master decorators in France during the period under review.

By the end of the 19th century, changes also affected the technical re-equipment of the theater stage: in the mid-1890s, the revolving stage, first used in 1896, during K. Lautenschläger's production of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, was widely used.

One of the most famous French actresses of the 19th century was the Parisian-born Catherine Josephine Rafin Duchenois (1777-1835). Her debut on the stage took place in 1802. In those years, the 25-year-old actress first appeared on the stage of the Comedie Francaise theater, in 1804 she already entered the main part of the theater troupe as a societaire.

In the first years of work, Catherine Duchenois, who played tragic roles on stage, had to constantly fight for the palm with actress Georges. Unlike the game of the last performance, Duchenois attracted the attention of the audience with warmth and lyricism, her penetrating and sincere soft voice could not leave anyone indifferent.

In 1808, Georges left for Russia, and Catherine Duchenois became the leading tragic actress of the Comédie Française.

Among the most significant roles of the actress can be noted Phaedra in the play of the same name by Racine, Andromache in Hector by Luce de Lancival, Agrippina in Arnaud's Germanica, Valeria in Sulla by Jouy, Mary Stuart in the play of the same name by Lebrun, etc.

The play of the actress Marie Dorval (1798-1849) also deserves special attention ( rice. 64), with inspiration, with extraordinary skill, embodied on stage the images of women challenging society in the struggle for their love.

Marie Dorval was born into a family of actors, her childhood was spent on the stage. Even then, the girl discovered extraordinary acting abilities. In small roles entrusted to her by the director, she tried to embody the whole image.

In 1818, Marie entered the Paris Conservatory, but left after a few months. The reason for this act was the incompatibility of the system of training actors in this educational institution with the creative individuality of a young talent. Soon Marie Dorval became a member of the acting troupe of one of the best boulevard theaters Port-Saint-Martin. It was here that the role of Amalia was played in Ducange's melodrama "Thirty Years, or the Life of a Gambler", which made the actress incredibly popular. In this performance, Marie's enormous talent was revealed, she demonstrated her masterful play to the metropolitan audience: having managed to go beyond the melodramatic image and find real human feelings in it, the actress conveyed them to the audience with special expressiveness and emotionality.

Rice. 64. Marie Dorval as Kitty Bell

In 1831, Dorval played the role of Ardel d'Hervey in the romantic drama Antony by A. Dumas, and a few months later she played the title role in V. Hugo's drama Marion.

Despite the fact that poetic plays were given to the actress with difficulty, since the verse was a kind of convention that contradicted her immediate emotionality, Marie successfully coped with the roles. Marion performed by Dorval caused a storm of delight not only among the audience, but also among the author of the work.

In 1835, the actress made her debut in Vigny's drama Chatterton written especially for her. Kitty Bell, performed by Dorval, appeared before the audience as a quiet, fragile woman who turned out to be capable of great love.

Marie Dorval - an actress with a hoarse voice and irregular features - became a symbol of femininity for 19th-century viewers. The play of this emotional actress, capable of expressing the great depth of human feelings, made an unforgettable impression on her contemporaries.

The famous French actor Pierre Bocage (1799-1862), who gained fame as the performer of the main roles in the dramas of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas-son, enjoyed special love of the public.

Pierre Bocage was born into a family of a simple worker, a weaving factory became a school of life for him, to which the boy entered in the hope of somehow helping his parents. Even in his childhood, Pierre became interested in the work of Shakespeare, which served as a catalyst for his passion for the stage.

Bocage, who lived with the dream of a theatre, went on foot to the capital to enter the conservatory. The examiners, amazed by the amazing appearance and unusual temperament of the young man, did not put up any obstacles.

However, his studies at the Paris Conservatory turned out to be short-lived: Pierre did not have enough money not only to pay for classes, but also to live. Soon he was forced to leave the educational institution and enter the acting troupe of one of the boulevard theaters. For a number of years he roamed the theaters, working first at the Odeon, then at the Porte Saint-Martin and many others.

The images created by Bocage on stage are nothing but an expression of the actor's attitude to the surrounding reality, his statement of disagreement with the desire of those in power to destroy human happiness.

Pierre Bocage entered the history of the French theater as the best performer of the roles of rebel heroes in social dramas of Victor Hugo (Didier in Marion Delorme), Alexandre Dumas son (Antoni in Antony), F. Pia (Ango in Ango) and etc.

It was Bocage who took the initiative to create on stage the image of a lonely, disappointed in life romantic hero, doomed to death in the fight against the ruling elite. The first role of such a plan was Anthony in the drama of the same name by A. Dumas the son; abrupt transitions from despair to joy, from laughter to bitter sobs were surprisingly effective. The audience for a long time remembered the image of Anthony performed by Pierre Bocage.

The actor became an active participant in the revolutionary events of 1848 in France. Believing in the victory of justice, he defended his democratic aspirations with arms in hand.

The collapse of hopes for the triumph of justice in the modern world did not force Bocage to change his worldview, he began to use the stage of the Odeon Theater as a means of combating the arbitrariness and despotism of state authorities.

Soon the actor was accused of anti-government activities and fired from his post as director of the theater. Nevertheless, until the end of his days, Pierre Bocage continued to firmly believe in the victory of justice and defend his ideals.

Along with such actresses of the first half of the 19th century as C. Duchenois and M. Dorval, is the famous Louise Rosalie Allan-Depreo (1810-1856). She was born in Mons, in the family of a theater director. This circumstance predetermined the entire future fate of Louise Rosalie.

The atmosphere of theatrical life was familiar to the famous actress from childhood. Already at the age of ten, a talented girl received recognition in the acting environment, the children's roles played by her in the Parisian Comedie Francaise theater left no one indifferent.

In 1827, after graduating from the drama class of the conservatory, Louise Allan-Depreo received a professional acting education. By that time, the young actress was already quite famous, and she was not surprised by the offer to join the acting troupe of the Comedie Francaise theater, where she worked until 1830. In the period from 1831 to 1836, Allan-Depreo shone on the stage of the Gimnaz Theater.

An important role in the acting life of Louise Rosalie was played by a trip to Russia: here, in the French troupe of the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theater, she spent ten years (1837-1847), improving her acting skills.

Returning to her homeland, Allan-Depreo again joined the Comédie Francaise troupe, becoming one of the best actresses role of grand coquette. Her game attracted the attention of the aristocratic layers of the French and Russian society: refined and elegant manners, the ability to wear a theatrical costume with special grace - all this contributed to the creation of images of frivolous secular coquettes.

Louise Rosalie Allan-Depreo became famous as a performer of roles in romantic plays by Alfred de Musset. Among the most famous roles of this actress are Madame de Lery in Caprice (1847), the Marquise in the play The Door Must Be Open or Closed (1848), the Countess Vernon in the tragedy You Can’t Foresee Everything (1849), the Duchess Bouillon in "Adrienne Lecouvreur" (1849), Jacqueline in "The Candlestick" (1850), the Countess d'Autret in "The Ladies' War" (1850) and others.

In the first half of the 19th century, pantomime theaters began to enjoy wide popularity. The best representative of this genre was Jean Baptiste Gaspard Debureau (1796-1846).

He was born in the family of the head of the theater troupe, and the joyful atmosphere of the theater from childhood filled his whole life. Until 1816, Jean Baptiste Gaspard worked in his father's team, and then moved to the Rope Dancers troupe, which worked at the Funambul Theater, one of the most democratic stage groups in the French capital.

As part of the Rope Dancers troupe, he played the role of Pierrot in the pantomime Harlequin Doctor, which brought the twenty-year-old actor his first success. The audience liked Debureau's hero so much that the actor had to embody this image in a number of other pantomimes: "The Raging Bull" (1827), "The Golden Dream, or Harlequin and the Miser" (1828), "The Whale" (1832) and "Pierrot in Africa" (1842).

At the beginning of the 19th century, the merry genre of folk buffoonery still dominated the farcical theater. Jean Baptiste Gaspard Debureau brought meaning to the farcical pantomime, bringing the wordless folk performance closer to the deeply meaningful productions of modern professional theater.

This explains the popularity of Deburov's Pierrot, who later became a folk comic hero. In this image, typical national traits of the French character were expressed - enterprise, ingenuity and caustic sarcasm.

Pierrot, who is subjected to countless beatings, persecution and humiliation, never loses his composure, maintains an unflappable carelessness, which allows him to emerge victorious from any, even the most intricate situations.

This character, performed by Debureau, indignantly rejected the existing order, he opposed the world of evil and violence with the common sense of a simple city dweller or peasant.

In the pantomimic performances of an earlier period, the performer of the role of Pierrot necessarily applied the so-called farcical makeup: he whitened his face, sprinkling it thickly with flour. Having preserved this tradition, Jean-Baptiste Gaspard used the world-famous Pierrot costume to create the image: long white harem pants, a wide collarless blouse and a symbolic black bandage on his head.

Later, in his best pantomimes, the actor tried to reflect the topic of the tragic fate of the poor in an unjust world, which was relevant in those years. Thanks to his virtuoso skill, which harmoniously combined brilliant eccentricity and a deep reflection of the inner essence of the character, he created wonderful images.

Debureau's game attracted the attention of the progressive artistic intelligentsia of the 19th century. Famous writers - C. Nodier, T. Gauthier, J. Janin, J. Sand and others spoke with enthusiasm about this actor.

However, Jean-Baptiste Gaspard Debureau entered the history of world theatrical art not as a fighter for justice, but only as a performer of the role of a popular folklore character. The best traditions of Debureau's work as an actor were later reflected in the work of the talented French actor M. Mars.

A remarkable actress in the first half of the 19th century was Virginie Dejazet (1798-1875). She was born into a family of artists, the upbringing received on the stage contributed to the early development of her stage talent.

In 1807, a talented girl attracted the attention of an entrepreneur at the Vaudeville theater in Paris. Virginie accepted the proposal to join the acting troupe with enthusiasm, she had long wanted to work in the capital's theater.

Work in Vaudeville contributed to the development of the skills of the young actress, but gradually she ceased to satisfy her. Leaving this theater, Virginie began work at the Variety, followed by invitations to Gimnaz and Nuvota, where the actress performed until 1830.

The heyday of her creative activity came in 1831-1843, when Virginie Dejazet shone on the stage of the Palais Royal Theater. In subsequent years, the actress, interrupting her collaboration with Parisian theater groups, toured the country a lot, sometimes staying for a season or two in provincial theaters.

Being a master of acting, Dejaze successfully acted as a drag queen, playing the roles of rake boys, pampered marquises, young girls and old women. The most successful roles were played by her in vaudeville and farces by Scribe, Bayard, Dumanoir and Sardou.

Virginie Dejazet's contemporaries often pointed to the actress's extraordinary grace, her virtuosity in stage dialogue, and her ability for precise phrasing.

The cheerful and witty heroines of Dejaze, who easily performed verses in vaudeville, ensured the actress's success, for a long time made her the favorite of the demanding metropolitan public. And this despite the fact that Virginie's repertoire did not correspond to the traditional tastes of the mass audience.

The virtuosity of the actress and the deeply national character of her performance were most clearly manifested in the performance of Béranger's songs (in Beranger's monologue "Lisette Béranger", in the vaudeville "Béranger's Songs" by Clairville and Lambert-Tibout).

One of the most famous French actresses who worked in the era of romanticism in a tragic role was Eliza Rachel (1821-1858) (Fig. 65). She was born in Paris, in the family of a poor Jew who sold various small things on the city streets. Already in early childhood, the girl showed outstanding abilities: songs performed by her attracted numerous buyers to her father's tray.

Rice. 65. Rachel as Phaedra

Natural artistic talent allowed the seventeen-year-old Eliza to join the acting troupe of the famous French theater "Comedy Francaise". Her debut role on this stage was Camille in Corneille's play Horace.

It should be noted that in the 30s of the 19th century, the repertoire of most metropolitan theaters was based on the works of novelists (V. Hugo, A. Vigny, etc.). Only with the appearance in the theatrical world of such a bright star as Eliza Rachel, the productions of forgotten classics resumed.

At that time, the image of Phaedra in the play of the same name by Racine was considered the highest indicator of acting skills in the tragic genre. It was this role that brought the actress a resounding success and recognition of the audience. Phaedra, played by Eliza Rachel, was presented as a proud, rebellious personality, the embodiment of the best human qualities.

The middle of the 1840s was marked by the active touring activities of the talented actress: her trips around Europe glorified the French school of theatrical art. Once Rachel even visited Russia and North America, where her performance received high marks from theater critics.

In 1848, a performance based on the play by J. Racine "Gofalia" was staged on the stage of the Comedie Francaise, in which Eliza Rachel played the main role. The image she created, which became a symbol of evil, destructive forces, gradually burning the soul of the ruler, allowed the actress to once again demonstrate her outstanding talent.

In the same year, Eliza decided to publicly read the Marseillaise by Rouget de Lisle on the stage in the capital. The result of this performance was the delight of the gallery and the indignation of the audience sitting in the stalls.

After that, the talented actress was unemployed for some time, because Eliza considered the repertoire of most modern theaters unworthy of her high talent. However, the stage craft still attracted the actress, and soon she began rehearsals again.

Active theatrical activity undermined Rachel's poor health: the thirty-six-year-old actress fell ill with tuberculosis and died a few months later, leaving a rich legacy of her unsurpassed skill to grateful descendants.

One of the most popular actors of the second half of the 19th century is the talented actor Benoit Constant Coquelin (1841-1909). Interest in theatrical art, shown by him in his early youth, turned into a matter of life.

Studying at the Paris Conservatory with the famous actor Renier in those years allowed the talented young man to rise to the stage and fulfill his old dream.

In 1860, Coquelin made his debut on the stage of the Comedie Francaise theater. The role of Gros Rene in the play based on Molière's play Love Annoyance brought the actor fame. In 1862, he became famous as the performer of the role of Figaro in Beaumarchais's play The Marriage of Figaro.

However, Coquelin played his best roles (Sganarelle in The Unwilling Doctor, Jourdain in The Tradesman in the Nobility, Mascarille in The Funny Cossacks, Tartuffe in the Molière play of the same name) after leaving the Comédie Française in 1885.

Many critics recognized the most successful images created by a talented actor in productions of Molière's works. In the last period of creativity in the repertoire of Coquelin, roles in the plays of Rostand prevailed.

The talented actor also became famous as the author of a number of theoretical treatises and articles on the problem of acting. In 1880, his book "Art and Theater" was published, and in 1886 a manual on acting called "The Art of the Actor" was published.

For eleven years (from 1898 to 1909) Coquelin worked as director of the theater "Port-Saint-Martin". This man did a lot for the development of theatrical art in France.

The improvement of acting skills was accompanied by the development of dramaturgy. By this time, the emergence of such famous writers as O. de Balzac, E. Zola, A. Dumas-son, the Goncourt brothers and others, who made a significant contribution to the stage art of the era of romanticism and realism.

The famous French writer and playwright Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) was born in Paris, the son of an official. Parents, caring about the future of their son, gave him a legal education; however, jurisprudence attracted the young man much less than literary activity. Soon the creations of Balzac gained wide popularity. Throughout his life, he wrote 97 novels, short stories and short stories.

Honore began to show interest in theatrical art in his childhood, but the first dramatic masterpieces were written by him only in the early 1820s. The most successful of these works were the tragedy Cromwell (1820) and the melodramas The Negro and The Corsican (1822). These far from perfect plays were very successfully staged on the stage of one of the Parisian theaters.

In the years of creative maturity, Balzac created a number of dramatic works that were included in the repertoires of many theaters of the world: The School of Marriage (1837), Vautrin (1840), Kinola's Hopes (1842), Pamela Giraud (1843), The Dealer "(1844) and" Stepmother "(1848). These plays were very popular.

The typical images created by the playwright of bankers, stockbrokers, manufacturers and politicians turned out to be surprisingly plausible; the works revealed the negative aspects of the bourgeois world, its predation, immorality and anti-humanism. In an effort to oppose social evil with the moral perfection of positive characters, Balzac introduced melodramatic features into his plays.

Most of Balzac's dramatic works are characterized by acute conflict, based on social contradictions, saturated with deep drama and historical concreteness.

Behind the fates of individual characters in the dramas of Honore de Balzac, there was always a wide life background; the heroes, who did not lose their individuality, appeared at the same time in the form of generalizing images.

The playwright strove to make his works life-like, to introduce into them characteristics life of a certain era, to give accurate speech characteristics of the characters.

Balzac dramas, which left a noticeable mark on the dramaturgy of the 19th century, had a significant impact on the development of world theatrical art.

Among the most famous plays by the talented French playwright, it is worth mentioning Stepmother, Kinola's Hopes, which were included in the repertoires of theaters under the name Storm Harbor, Kinola's Dreams; "Eugene Grande" and "Provincial History", written on the basis of the novel "Life of a Bachelor".

Honore de Balzac became famous not only as a playwright and writer, but also as an art theorist. Many of Balzac's articles expressed his ideas about the new theatre.

The playwright spoke indignantly about censorship, which had imposed a taboo on the critical reflection of contemporary reality on the stage. In addition, Balzac was alien to the commercial basis of the theater of the 19th century with its typical bourgeois ideology and remoteness from life's realities.

Benjamin Antier (1787-1870), a talented French playwright, author of numerous melodramas, comedies and vaudevilles, worked in a slightly different direction than Balzac.

The plays of this playwright were included in the repertoire of many metropolitan boulevard theaters. Being a supporter of democratic and republican ideas, Antje tried to convey them to the audience, therefore accusatory notes sound in his works, making them socially oriented.

In collaboration with the popular French actor Frederic Lemaitre, the playwright wrote one of the most famous plays - "Robert Macer", which was staged in 1834 on the stage of the Parisian theater "Foli Dramatic". To a large extent, the success of this play is due to the magnificent performance of the audience's favorite Frederic Lemaitre ( rice. 66) and the entire acting troupe.

Rice. 66. Lemaitre as Robert Macer

Among other plays by Benjamin Anttier, which were successful among the metropolitan public, The Carrier (1825), The Masks of Resin (1825), The Rochester (1829) and The Firestarter (1830) deserve special attention. They also reflect the acute social problems of the modern world.

An innovator in French drama in the first half of the 19th century was the talented writer Casimir Jean-Francois Delavigne (1793-1843). At the age of eighteen, he entered the literary circles of France, and eight years later he made his dramatic debut.

In 1819, Casimir Delavigne began working at the Odeon Theater, on the stage of which one of his first tragedies, The Sicilian Vespers, was staged. In this, as in many other early works of the young playwright, one can trace the influence of the famous theatrical classics of the past, who did not allow the slightest deviation from the recognized canons of classicism in their creations.

In the same strict tradition, the tragedy "Marino Faglieri" was written, shown for the first time at the theater "Port-Saint-Martin". In the preface to this play, Delavigne tried to formulate the basic principles of his aesthetic views. He believed that in modern drama there was a need to combine the artistic techniques of classic art and romanticism.

It should be noted that at that time many literary figures adhered to a similar point of view, rightly believing that only a tolerant attitude towards various trends in dramaturgy would allow the world theatrical art to develop effectively in the future.

However, the complete denial of samples of classical art, especially in the field of literary poetic language, could cause the decline of theatrical literature as a whole.

The talented playwright embodied innovative tendencies in his later works, the most significant of which was the tragedy "Louis XI", written in 1832 and staged a few months later on the stage of the Comedie Francaise theater.

The tragedy of C. J. F. Delavigne, characterized by romantic poetics, vivid dynamism of images and subtle local color, was significantly different from traditional classical plays.

The image of King Louis XI, repeatedly embodied on stage by the best actors of France and other European countries, has become one of the most beloved in the acting environment. So, in Russia, the role of Louis was perfectly played by the talented actor V. Karatygin, in Italy - by E. Rossi.

Throughout his life, Casimir Jean-Francois Delavigne adhered to the anti-clerical views of the supporters of the national liberation movement, while not going beyond moderate liberalism. Apparently, it was precisely this circumstance that allowed the works of the talented playwright to gain wide popularity among the ruling elite of the Restoration period and not lose it even in the early years of the July Monarchy.

Among the most famous works Delavigne's tragedies "Pariah" (1821) and "Edward's Children" (1833) should be named, the author's comedy works ("School for the Old" (1823), "Don Juan of Austria" (1835) and others) were no less popular in the 19th century. ).

No less famous than the plays of O. de Balzac and other famous figures of theatrical art, in the 19th century, the dramatic works of the famous Alexander Dumas son (1824-1895) were used.

He was born in the family of the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. The father's profession predetermined the son's life path, however, unlike his illustrious parent, Alexander was more attracted to dramatic activities.

Real success came to Dumas the son only in 1852, when the play The Lady of the Camellias, remade by him from a previously written novel, was presented to the general public. The production of the play, imbued with humanity, warmth and deep sympathy for the courtesan rejected by society, took place on the stage of the Vaudeville Theater. The audience enthusiastically greeted The Lady of the Camellias.

This dramatic work of Dumas son, translated into many languages, entered the repertoire of the largest theaters in the world. At various times, S. Bernard, E. Duse and other famous actresses played the leading role in The Lady of the Camellias. Based on this play, in 1853 Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera La traviata.

By the mid 1850s family problems became the leading themes in the work of A. Dumas son. These are his plays "Diana de Lis" (1853) and "Half Light" (1855), "Money Question" (1857) and "Bad Son" (1858), staged on the stage of the theater "Gimnaz". The playwright turned to the theme of a strong family in his later works: “The Views of Madame Aubrey” (1867), “Princess Georges” (1871), etc.

Many theater critics of the 19th century called Alexandre Dumas son the founder of the problem play genre and the most prominent representative of French realistic dramaturgy. However, a deeper study of the creative heritage of this playwright makes it possible to make sure that the realism of his works was in most cases external, somewhat one-sided.

Condemning certain aspects of contemporary reality, Dumas son affirmed the spiritual purity and deep morality of the family structure, and the immorality and injustice existing in the world appeared in his works as the vices of individual individuals. Along with the best works of E. Ogier, V. Sardou and other playwrights, the plays of Alexandre Dumas son formed the basis of the repertoire of many European theaters in the second half of the 19th century.

Popular writers, playwrights and theater theorists were the brothers Edmond (1822-1896) and Jules (1830-1870) Goncourt. They entered the literary circles of France in 1851, when their first work was published.

It is worth noting that the Goncourt brothers created their literary and dramatic masterpieces only in co-authorship, rightly believing that their joint creativity will find ardent admirers.

For the first time, the work of the Goncourt brothers (the novel Henriette Marechal) was staged on the stage of the Comedie Francaise theater in 1865. Many years later, on the stage of the Free Theatre, Henri Antoine staged the drama Fatherland in Danger. He also staged Goncourt's novels Sister Philomena (1887) and The Maiden Eliza (1890).

In addition, the advanced French public did not ignore the staging of the novels Germinie Lacerte (1888) at the Odeon Theater, Charles Damailly (1892) at the Gymnase.

The literary activity of the Goncourt brothers is associated with the emergence of a new genre: under the influence of their fine artistic taste in European theater spread such a phenomenon as naturalism.

Famous writers strove for detailed accuracy in describing events, attached great importance to the laws of physiology and the influence of the social environment, while paying special attention to a deep psychological analysis of the characters.

Directors who undertook to stage Goncourt's plays usually used exquisite scenery, which was given at the same time strict expressiveness.

In 1870, Jules Goncourt died, the death of his brother made a great impression on Edmond, but did not force him to abandon his literary activities. In the 1870s - 1880s he wrote a number of novels: "The Zemganno Brothers" (1877), "Faustina" (1882) and others, dedicated to the life of actors of Parisian theaters and circus performers.

In addition, E. Goncourt turned to the genre of biographies: works about famous French actresses of the 18th century (Mademoiselle Clairon, 1890) were especially popular.

No less attractive to readers was the "Diary", begun during the life of Jules. In that volumetric product the author tried to present a huge thematic material on the religious, historical and dramatic culture of France in the 19th century.

However, despite his special interest in theater issues, Edmond Goncourt considered it an endangered art form, unworthy of the attention of a true playwright.

In the later works of the writer, anti-democratic tendencies sounded, nevertheless, his novels were filled with subtle psychologism, characteristic of the new trends of modern French literature.

Following the Impressionist artists, Edmond Goncourt considered it necessary to reflect in the works of any genre the slightest shades of feelings and moods of the characters. Probably for this reason, E. Goncourt is considered the founder of impressionism in French literature.

The second half of the 19th century, marked by the development of a new cultural trend - critical realism, gave the world many talented playwrights, including the famous Emile Edouard Charles Antoine Zola (1840-1902), who gained fame not only as a gifted writer, but also as a literary and theater critic.

Emile Zola was born in the family of an Italian engineer, a descendant of an old family. The childhood years of the future playwright were spent in the small French town of Aix-en-Provence, where Zola the father worked on the design of the canal. Here the boy received a decent education, made friends, the closest of whom was Paul Cezanne, a famous artist in the future.

In 1857, the head of the family died, the financial well-being of the family deteriorated sharply, and the widow and her son were forced to leave for Paris. It was here, in the French capital, that Emile Zola created his first work of art - the farce The Fooled Mentor (1858), written in the best traditions of the critical realism of Balzac and Stendhal.

Two years later, the young writer presented to the audience a play based on La Fontaine's fable "The Milkmaid and the Jug". The staging of this play, called "Pierrette", was quite successful.

However, before being recognized by literary circles capital, Emil had to be content at first with odd jobs, which soon gave way to a permanent job at the Ashet publishing house. At the same time, Zola wrote articles for various newspapers and magazines.

In 1864, his first collection of short stories, entitled The Tales of Ninon, was published, and a year later the novel Claude's Confession was published, which brought the author wide fame. Zola did not leave the dramatic field either.

Among his early works of this genre, the one-act vaudeville in verse “To live with wolves is to howl like wolves”, the sentimental comedy “The Ugly Girl” (1864), as well as the plays “Madeleine” (1865) and “Marseille Secrets” (1867) deserve special attention.

The first serious work of Emile Zola, many critics called the drama "Thérèse Raquin", staged according to novel of the same name at the Renaissance Theater in 1873. However, the realistic plot of the play and the tense internal conflict the main character were simplified by a melodramatic denouement.

The drama "Thérèse Raquin" was included in the repertoire of the best French theaters for several decades of the 19th century. According to many contemporaries, it was "a genuine tragedy in which E. Zola, like Balzac in Père Goriot, reflected the Shakespearean story, identifying Teresa Raquin with Lady Macbeth."

While working on the next work, the playwright, who was carried away by the idea of ​​naturalistic literature, set the goal of creating " scientific novel”, which would include data from the natural sciences, medicine and physiology.

Believing that the character and actions of each person are determined by the laws of heredity, the environment in which he lives, and the historical moment, Zola saw the writer's task in an objective depiction of a particular moment of life under certain conditions.

The novel "Madeleine Ferat" (1868), demonstrating the basic laws of heredity in action, became the first sign in a series of novels dedicated to the life of several generations of one family. It was after writing this work that Zola decided to turn to this topic.

In 1870, the thirty-year-old writer married Gabrielle-Alexandrine Mel, and three years later became the owner of a beautiful house in the suburbs of Paris. Soon, young writers, supporters of the naturalistic school, who actively promoted radical reforms in the modern theater, began to gather in the living room of the spouses.

In 1880, with the support of Zola, young people published a collection of stories "Medan Evenings", theoretical works "Experimental Novel" and "Natural Novelists", the purpose of which was to explain the true essence of the new dramaturgy.

Following the supporters of the naturalistic school, Emil turned to writing critical articles. In 1881, he combined separate publications on the theater into two collections: Our Playwrights and Naturalism in the Theatre, in which he tried to give a historical explanation of the individual stages in the development of French drama.

Having shown in these works the creative portraits of V. Hugo, J. Sand, A. Dumas son, Labiche and Sardou, in a dispute with which an aesthetic theory was created, Zola sought to present them exactly as they were in life. In addition, the collection includes essays on theatrical activities Daudet, Erkman-Chatrian and the Goncourt brothers.

In the theoretical part of one of the books, the talented writer presented a new program of naturalism, which absorbed the best traditions of the times of Moliere, Regnard, Beaumarchais and Balzac - playwrights who played an important role in the development of theatrical art not only in France, but throughout the world.

Believing that theatrical traditions needed a serious revision, Zola showed a new understanding of the tasks of acting. Taking a direct part in theatrical performances, he advised actors to "live the play instead of acting it."

The playwright did not take seriously the pretentious style of play and declamation; he was unpleasant for the theatrical unnaturalness of the poses and gestures of the actors.

Of particular interest to Zola was the problem of stage design. Speaking against the inexpressive scenery of the classical theater, following the Shakespearean tradition, which provided for an empty stage, he called for the replacement of scenery that "does not benefit the dramatic action."

Advising artists to apply methods that truthfully convey "the social environment in all its complexity", the writer at the same time warned them against simply "copying nature", in other words, from the simplified naturalistic use of scenery. Zola's ideas about the role of theatrical costume and make-up were based on the principle of rapprochement with reality.

Approaching critically the problems of modern French dramaturgy, the illustrious writer demanded both from the actors and the directors that the stage action should be closer to reality, and that various human characters be studied in detail.

Although Zola advocated the creation of "living images" taken in "typical positions", he at the same time advised not to forget the best traditions of dramaturgy of such famous classics as Corneille, Racine and Moliere.

In accordance with the principles promoted, many works of the talented playwright were written. So, in the comedy The Heirs of Rabourdain (1874), when showing funny provincial philistines who were looking forward to the death of their wealthy relative, Zola used the storyline of B. Johnson's Volpone, as well as comedy situations typical of Molière's plays.

Elements of borrowing are also found in other dramatic works by Zola: in the play The Rosebud (1878), the melodrama Rene (1881), the lyrical dramas The Dream (1891), Messidor (1897) and The Hurricane (1901) .

It is worth noting that the writer's lyrical dramas, with their peculiar rhythmic language and fantastic plot, expressed in the unreality of time and place of action, were close to the plays of Ibsen and Maeterlinck and had a high artistic value.

However, theater critics and the metropolitan audience, brought up on the "well-made" dramas of V. Sardou, E. Ogier and A. Dumas-son, indifferently met the productions of Zola's works, carried out with the direct participation of the author by the talented director V. Byuznak on many theater scenes Paris.

So, at different times, Zola's plays "The Trap" (1879), "Nana" (1881) and "Scum" (1883) were staged at the Ambigu Comedian Theater, and "The Womb of Paris" (1887 ), at the Free Theater - "Jacques d'Amour" (1887), at the "Chatelet" - "Germinal" (1888).

In the period from 1893 to 1902, the repertoire of the Odeon Theater included "Page of Love", "Earth" and "The Misdemeanor of the Abbé Mouret" by Emile Zola, and they were quite successful on the stage for a number of years.

Theatrical figures of the late 19th century spoke with approval of the late period of the famous writer's work, recognizing his merits in winning the freedom to stage plays "with various plots, on any topic, which made it possible to bring the people, workers, soldiers, peasants to the stage - all this many-voiced and magnificent the crowd."

Emile Zola's main monumental work was the Rougon-Macquart series of novels, which was worked on over several decades, from 1871 to 1893. On the pages of this twenty-volume work, the author tried to reproduce the picture of the spiritual and social life of French society in the period from 1851 (the coup of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte) to 1871 (the Paris Commune).

At the last stage of his life, the famous playwright worked on the creation of two epic cycles of novels, united by the ideological searches of Pierre Froment, the protagonist of the works. The first of these cycles (Three Cities) included the novels Lourdes (1894), Rome (1896) and Paris (1898). The next series, "The Four Gospels", were the books "Fecundity" (1899), "Labor" (1901) and "Truth" (1903).

Unfortunately, the "Four Gospels" remained unfinished, the writer was unable to complete the fourth volume of the work, begun in the last year of his life. However, this circumstance in no way diminished the significance of this work, the main theme of which was the utopian ideas of the author, who tried to realize his dream of the triumph of reason and labor in the future.

It should be noted that Emile Zola not only actively worked in the literary field, but also showed interest in the political life of the country. He did not disregard the famous Dreyfus affair (in 1894, an officer of the French General Staff, the Jew Dreyfus, was unfairly convicted of espionage), which, according to J. Guesde, became “the most revolutionary act of the century” and found a warm response from the progressive French public.

In 1898, Zola made an attempt to expose an obvious miscarriage of justice: a letter was sent to the President of the Republic with the heading "I accuse".

However, the result of this action was sad: the famous writer was convicted of "slander" and sentenced to a year in prison.

In this regard, Zola was forced to flee the country. He settled in England and returned to France only in 1900, after the acquittal of Dreyfus.

In 1902, the writer died unexpectedly, official reason death was attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning, but many considered this "accident" to be premeditated. During a speech at the funeral, Anatole France called his colleague "the conscience of the nation."

In 1908, the remains of Emile Zola were transferred to the Pantheon, and a few months later the famous writer was posthumously awarded the title of member of the French Academy of Sciences (note that during his lifetime his candidacy was proposed about 20 times).

Among the best representatives of French drama in the second half of the 19th century, one can name the talented writer, journalist and playwright Paul Alexis (1847-1901). He began to engage in literary creativity quite early, the poems he wrote while studying at the college became widely known.

Upon graduation, Paul began working in newspapers and magazines, in addition to this, he was also attracted to drama. In the late 1870s, Alexis wrote his first play, Mademoiselle Pomme (1879), followed by other dramatic masterpieces.

The theatrical activity of Paul Alexis was most closely associated with the Free Theater of the outstanding director and actor Andre Antoine. Supporting the creative pursuits of a talented director, the playwright even staged for him his best short story, The End of Lucy Pellegrin, which was released in 1880 and staged at the Paris Theater in 1888.

Being an ardent admirer of naturalism in the performing arts, Paul Alexis opposed the strengthening of anti-realist tendencies in the French theater.

The desire for naturalism was expressed in the play "The Servant about Everything", written in 1891 and staged on the stage of the Variety Theater a few months later. Somewhat later, under the direction of Alexis, the theater "Gimnaz" staged the novel by the Goncourt brothers "Charles Demailli" (1893).

Humanistic motives are imbued with the works of another, no less popular French playwright, Edmond Rostand (1868-1918). His plays reflected the romantic ideals of faith in the spiritual power of each individual. Noble knights, fighters for goodness and beauty, became the heroes of Rostanov's works.

The playwright's debut on the stage took place in 1894, when his comedy The Romantics was given at the Comédie Française. In this work, the author sought to show the sublimity of sincere human feelings, to demonstrate to the audience sadness and regret for the naive romantic world that has gone into the past. Romantics was a resounding success.

Rostand's heroic comedy Cyrano de Bergerac, staged at the Porte Saint-Martin Theater in Paris in 1897, was especially popular. The playwright managed to create a vivid image of a noble knight, a defender of the weak and offended, who later received a real embodiment in the performance of the best actors of the French theater school.

The fact that the beautiful, noble soul of the protagonist hides behind an ugly appearance, which forces him to hide his love for the beautiful Roxanne for a number of years, makes the play's artistic conception especially poignant. Only before his death, Cyrano reveals his feelings to his beloved.

The heroic comedy "Cyrano de Bergerac" was the pinnacle of Edmond Rostand's work. In the last year of his life, he wrote another play, called "The Last Night of Don Juan" and reminiscent of the nature of the presentation and the main meaning of a philosophical treatise.

An important role in the stage art of France in the late 19th - early 20th century was played by the so-called Antoine Theater, founded in Paris by the outstanding director, actor and theater figure Andre Antoine.

The new theater began its work in the premises of one of the Menu-Pleisir salons. His repertoire was based on the works of young compatriots and the best examples of new foreign drama. Antoine invited actors to his troupe, with whom he worked for a number of years at the Free Theater (the latter ceased to exist in 1896).

The premiere productions of the Theater Antoine were quite successful staging of plays by young French playwrights Briet and Courteline.

When creating his theater, the director sought to solve the same tasks that were put forward by him while working at the Free Theater.

Approving the ideas of the naturalistic school of French theatrical art, Antoine not only promoted the works of young French writers, but also introduced capital audiences to new foreign drama, which rarely hit the French stage (at that time, empty, meaningless plays by fashionable authors were staged on the stages of many Parisian theaters) .

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After the Revolution of 1848, French musical culture entered a complex and difficult period. Social conditions hindered its development. Only gradually accumulated, matured new progressive trends, while the former ones had already ceased to meet the needs of our time, and Paris - in the recent past the largest musical center in Europe - has now lost its leading significance. The time of the greatest glory of Meyerbeer is left behind - it belongs to the 30-40s; in the same decades, Berlioz created his best works - now he has entered a period of severe crisis; Chopin, who was firmly connected with the Parisian musical life and was its decoration, died; By this time Liszt had left France, settling in Germany. True, by the end of the 50s and in the 60s a number of new names appeared - Offenbach, Gounod, Bizet, Saint-Saens and others. But they (with the exception of only Offenbach) with difficulty made their way to public recognition through the entire structure and nature of the social life of the Second Empire.

The conquests of the revolution of 1848 were usurped three years later by Louis Bonaparte, who proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III (Hugo branded him with the nickname "Little Napoleon"). A skillful demagogue, he managed to use the general popular dissatisfaction with the bourgeois monarchy of Louis Philippe and, deftly maneuvering between various social groups of the French population, played them off.

But, having turned the entire bourgeois economy upside down, Napoleon III in the next two decades brought the country to a complete state collapse. With brutal clarity Franco-Prussian War 1870 exposed the squalor of the Second Empire, headed by a "gang of political and financial adventurers" (F. Engels).

The country was seized with feverish excitement: the passion for profit, for stock exchange speculation, penetrated everywhere - everything was corruptible. This corruption was covered up by the shameless luxury of purple and gold and the blatant brilliance of boastful adventurism.

Napoleon III plunged France into continuous wars with Russia (the so-called "Crimean Campaign"), Austria, China, Syria, Mexico and finally Germany. These wars sometimes gave birth visibility success, although they brought nothing but harm to the country's economy. But Napoleon needed them, because on the occasion of any public event he arranged magnificent spectacles - whether it was the arrival of the English Queen Victoria or the Persian Shah Farouk, the coronation of Alexander II in St. Petersburg or the victory over the Austrians near Solferino (in Italy), death folk poet Berenger or the funeral of the famous composers Meyerbeer and Rossini. Each of these events was accompanied by luxurious ceremonies: the troops marched to the deafening sounds of the brass of the consolidated orchestras, concerts were given with many thousands of participants. Outwardly, the front side of life in Paris was furnished with tasteless splendor. Even the city itself was transformed: old houses were demolished, entire neighborhoods - Paris was rebuilt in a bourgeois way.

In the public life of France, a large place was occupied by spectacular enterprises. By 1867, when the festivities reached their climax in connection with the Universal Exhibition, Paris had forty-five theaters, of which a characteristic detail! - thirty provided their stage for lighter genres. In a whirlpool of fun and public balls, France was rapidly rushing towards the Sedan disaster. (Zola's multi-volume Rougon-Maquart series of novels captures a broad picture of the manners and social life of the Second Empire.).

The crisis of the "big" and comic operas

Under such conditions, musical art could not fruitfully develop - with the exception of only its light, entertaining genres. Dancing fad covered all sectors of society - from Versailles to the outskirts of Paris. Pleasure music, with its sharp, moving rhythms and perky songs, sounded everywhere - in boulevard theaters, variety shows, garden concerts. Sometimes small farces-vaudevilles on topical issues were played out. In the 50s, an operetta arose on this basis - it embodied the frivolous spirit of the Second Empire (for more details, see the essay "Jacques Offenbach"). The enchanting flourishing of the operetta was accompanied by an artistic decline in the art of opera.

Ceremonial pomp and stilted rhetoric, which covered inner emptiness and moral unscrupulousness, these characteristic features of the ideology of the ruling circles of the Second Empire, left their mark on the content and style of musical performances, especially the official Grand Opera theater. The pernicious influence of this ideology most strongly affected the so-called "grand opera" of the spectacular-monumental type.

The dramaturgy of Scribe-Meyerbeer, whose highest achievement was The Huguenots (1836), has exhausted itself. Meyerbeer himself, after The Prophet (1849), which represented a step back in relation to the Huguenots, turned to other searches, because attempts to embody the heroic-active principle or popular-national ideals could not succeed in an atmosphere of corruption that corroded the social system of the Second Empire. . Even Berlioz failed to do this, striving in Les Troyens (1859) to resurrect the ethical spirit and classical plasticity of the forms of Gluck's tragedy. All the more futile were the experiments of the epigones of the Meyerbeer school. Their works, which used historical or mythological subjects in a pompous, conventional manner, turned out to be lifeless. (The best opera by the talented and prolific Fromental Halévy (1799-1862) - "Zhidovka", known on the stages of the Soviet musical theater under the name "The Cardinal's Daughter", - was also staged in 1835, shortly before The Huguenots. V. I. Lenin spoke warmly about this opera (see: Lenin V. I. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 55, p. 202); A. I. Herzen highly appreciated it.). Unscrupulousness in ideological terms, eclecticism in artistic terms are indicative of the crisis of the "big opera". Representatives of the next generation - Gounod, Saint-Saens, Massenet and others - could not breathe life into it.

The comic opera was also experiencing a serious crisis due to the impoverishment of the ideological content, the craving for external entertainment. But still, in comparison with the "big", in the field of comic opera, creative activity was more intensively manifested. For many years such experienced masters as Daniel Francois worked here. Ober(died in 1871, but still in 1869 - at the age of eighty-seven! - wrote his last comic opera) and Ambroise Tom(died 1896); in the comic genre tried their hand Bizet(although his youthful opera "Don Procopio" was not staged), saint sans And Gounod; let us not forget, finally, that Carmen was conceived by its author as a comic opera.

And yet, what was created in these years was more nourished by long-standing traditions - the same Aubert with his best works of the 30s (“Fra Diavolo”, “Black Domino”), Adolphe Adam or Louis Herold - than opened new ways. But the rich experience accumulated by the comic opera in depicting everyday life, real types and modern life was not in vain - it contributed to the formation of new genres of operetta and "lyrical opera".

From the late 50s and 60s, the “lyric opera” was established, in which ordinary plots, emotionally truthful, “sociable” means of expression were signs of the growing influence of realism in French art (see more about this in the essays “Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet). And if the quality of the performances of the old state institutions of France - the Parisian theaters "Grand Orera" and "Comic Opera" - sharply decreased, then, responding to the requests of democratic listeners, a private entreprise of a new musical theater, called "Lyrical" (existed from 1851 to 1870) came to the fore. ). Here not only works of world classics were performed, but also modern composers, including Berlioz, especially the creators of the "lyrical" genre - Gounod ("Faust", "Mireil", "Romeo and Juliet"), Bizet ("The Pearl Seekers" , "Perth beauty") and others.

State of concert life

At the end of this period, some revival is also planned on the concert stage. This is the most vulnerable side of Parisian musical life: due to the enthusiasm for the performances of soloists, symphonic and chamber culture stood at an extremely low level. True, there was an orchestra of the conservatory, organized in 1828 by the conductor Francois Gabenec from among its professors; but, firstly, the performances of the orchestra were rare, and secondly, they did not differ in artistic perfection. In the 1950s, conductor Jules Padelo formed a "youth orchestra" from among the students of the conservatory (the so-called "Society of Young Artists"), and in the next decade he managed to instill in the public an interest in symphonic music.

However, Saint-Saens rightly pointed out: “The French composer, who until 1870 had the courage to embark on the slippery path of instrumental music, had no other opportunity to publicly perform his compositions than to give his own concert and invite his friends and music critics to it. As for the public, I mean the “real public,” there was nothing to think about: the name of the composer printed on the poster, and, moreover, a French composer, and, moreover, a living one, had a wonderful property to put everyone to flight. Insufficient public interest in these genres also left its mark on the methods of conservatory education, which sinned with a fair amount of dogmatism and, according to the established bad tradition, did not instill in composers an artistic taste for instrumental music.

To a certain extent, this is due to the prevailing attention to the means of musical stage expression - to the theater, to the effective display of human feelings and actions, to the reproduction of pictorial moments, which is generally so characteristic of French national artistic traditions. This, in particular, was pointed out by the same Saint-Saens: “In France, they love the theater so much that young composers, when writing music for concerts, cannot do without it, and instead of truly symphonic works, they often give stage excerpts, marches, festivities, dances. and processions in which the ideal dream of the symphony is replaced by the visual reality of the theatrical stage.

The tragic fate of the greatest symphonist of the 19th century, Berlioz, is very indicative of the difficult conditions in which French instrumental music made its way to public recognition. But even in this area of ​​musical creativity, a salutary turning point occurred as a result of the social upsurge at the turn of the 60s and 70s. True, glimpses of the emerging shift can be detected earlier - back in the 50s, they performed their first symphonies by Gounod (1851), Saint-Saens (1853), Bizet (1855; this symphony was not performed during the composer's lifetime). And although Saint-Saens in 1870 was already the author of two symphonies, three piano concertos, two for violin, a number of orchestral overtures and suites, nevertheless, the time of the versatile flowering of French symphonic music falls on the last third of the 19th century.

In 1869, Berlioz dies - alone, deprived of his circle of listeners. But a year later, Paris holds the Berlioz celebrations in a festive atmosphere, and the creator of the Fantastic Symphony is proclaimed a national genius. And in the next thirty years, in the concerts of the conductor Eduard Colonn alone, Berlioz's works were performed five hundred times, of which "The Condemnation of Faust" - one hundred and fifty.

The role of urban musical folklore

Thus, changes in musical culture were gradually outlined - they reflected the growth of the forces of the democratic camp, which singled out a galaxy of talented young composers from its midst. In contrast to the romantics - representatives of the older generation - their artistic ideals were formed under the sign of realism, which is now advancing in French art on a broad front.

In painting, Gustave Courbet advanced - in the future an active communard. "Realism, in its essence, is an art democratic", he said. And after him, Edouard Manet became famous, the author of the sensational paintings "Olympia", "Breakfast on the Grass". Deeper reflection of the contradictions of modern life and literature - in the second half of the century, its prominent figures were Gustave Flaubert, Emile Zola, Guy de Maupassant. Nevertheless, the realistic currents were heterogeneous in their composition, and it is possible to unite their representatives into a certain “school” only conditionally.

The same must be said about music. Realistic tendencies take shape here later than in literature - their manifestation was hampered by the concert and theatrical practice, which reflected the aesthetic tastes of the ruling circles of the Second Empire. Therefore, realism in music as dominant direction appeared only in the 70s, after the Paris Commune, and was also qualitatively heterogeneous. However, the very fact of the penetration of democratic images and plots into musical works was progressive. Moreover, the means of musical expressiveness, the warehouse of musical speech, became democratized, became more “sociable”.

In this process intonation update French music of the second half of the XIX century, the role of urban folklore is significant. The ever more violently rising waves of the revolutionary movement contributed to the widespread development of everyday song and dance genres. This music of "oral tradition" was created and performed by folk city poets-singers - they are called in French "chansonniers" (chansonniers):

Beginning with Pierre Beranger, many French poets drew inspiration from the folk tradition of the chansonnier. Among them are artisans and workers. They improvised and sang topical verses themselves in artistic cafes; such meetings were called "goguette" (goguette means in French "merry feast" or "merry singing"). Goguettes are an integral part of the musical life not only in Paris, but also in other major cities of France.

On the basis of goguettes, amateur singing societies grew up (they arose in the 20s of the 19th century), whose members were called "orpheonists" (By the 70s, there were over three thousand singing societies in France. Brass music ensembles (their members were called "harmonists") were no less popular.). The main contingent of these societies were workers, which, naturally, determined the ideological and political orientation of the repertoire of the songs performed. Back in 1834, in the preface to a collection of such texts (“Republican Poems”, two editions), it was said: “A song, only a song is possible now,” we want to say, “only a folk song will now become something like street presses. She will find her way to the people."

She really found this way. Many songs, awakening the class consciousness of the workers, gained the widest popularity. Among these genuine folk art- Born on the eve of the revolutionary uprising of 1848, "The Song of Bread" by Pierre Dupont and created several decades later as a response to the events of the Paris Commune, the greatest artistic monument to its heroic deeds - "The Internationale" by Eugene Pottier - Pierre Degeyter.

The historical significance of the Paris Commune, the mass nature of its artistic events. International anthem of the proletariat "Internationale"

The Paris Commune - this "unparalleled experience in the history of mankind of the dictatorship of the proletariat" (V. I. Lenin) - marked a major turning point in the socio-political and cultural life France. The commune was preceded by a shameful defeat in the war with Germany - for forty-one days, due to the mediocrity of the generals, the French lost ten battles, and Napoleon III, at the head of his troops, surrendered in Sedan to the mercy of the winners. The economic ruin in the country has reached its limit. Overwhelmed by a patriotic impulse, the Parisian workers took power into their own hands.

The Commune did not last long, drowned in a sea of ​​blood by the reactionary bourgeoisie, only seventy-two days. But its activities in the field, not only political, but also cultural, were distinguished by ideological breadth and purposefulness. The municipality has prepared a mandatory schooling, separated from the church, made it possible for workers to visit theaters, concerts, libraries, museums, etc.

"Art for the masses" - such is the slogan proclaimed by the Commune, which formed the basis of its artistic policy. For the working masses, concerts were organized according to a mixed program and performances of small forms. They were given on a colossal scale in the Tuileries Palace, where the patriotic performances of talented actresses Agar and Borda were especially famous. Numerous concerts were also organized by the districts of Paris, the National Guard detachments - music sounded in the streets and squares. Love for art inspired the proletarian defenders of the Commune - it became a symbol of their new revolutionary life.

The Federation of Artists, headed by Gustave Courbet, provided great assistance in organizing mass spectacles. Despite the emigration or sabotage of many artists (mainly the Grand Opera and the French Comedy), the Federation managed to win over a number of major artistic figures to its side. Among them are the poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, the pianist Raoul Pugnot, the composer Henri Litolphe, the violinist Charles Dancla, the researcher of folk and early music Louis Burgaud-Decoudre and others.

The commune experienced difficulties with the planned reform of musical education. A significant part of the professorship fled from Paris (out of forty-seven professors, twenty-six remained), and among those who remained, many did not take part in the activities of the Commune. The energetic and talented composer Daniel-Salvador (1831-1871), the author of over four hundred songs, piano and other compositions, a scientist - a great connoisseur of Arabic music - and a critic, was placed at the head of the conservatory. However, his consistently thought-out project for the democratization of conservative education failed to materialize, and Salvador itself, during the suppression of the Commune, was killed by the troops of the bourgeois government.

In its artistic policy, aimed at the welfare of the people, the Commune has managed to accomplish a lot, but it has outlined even more for implementation. And if her activity was not directly reflected in the work of modern professional composers, it affected later indirectly deepening and expanding the democratic foundations of French art.

The direct impact of the ideas of the Commune is captured in new songs created by working poets and musicians. Some of these songs have come down to us, and one of them has gained worldwide fame, becoming a banner in the struggle for democracy and socialism. This is the International (In addition, it is necessary to name the combat song of the Communards “Red Banner”. Its text was translated in 1881 by the Polish poet B. Chervinsky, and from Poland in the late 90s this song came to Russia, where it soon became very popular.).

Working poet and singer Eugene Pottier(1816-1887), a convinced Communard, a few days after the defeat of the Commune - June 3, 1871 - hiding underground, created a text that later became the anthem of the world proletariat. This text (it was published only in 1887) was born of the ideas of the Commune, and some of its turns paraphrase the most important provisions of the "Communist Manifesto" (In 1864, under the leadership of K. Marx and F. Engels, the "International Association of Workers" was created - the first international mass organization of the proletariat, which in French was abbreviated as the "International". Pottier's song, calling for the unity of the workers of all countries, used is the title.).

Another worker is a woodcarver Pierre Degeyter(1848-1932), an active member of the circle of "Orpheonists" of the city of Lille, in 1888 created a melody to the text of Pottier, which was immediately picked up by the workers of Lille, and after that of other industrial centers of France.

In 1902, the Russian revolutionary A. Ya. Kots translated three of the six stanzas of the song, intensifying the revolutionary invocative moments in its content. A translation-reworking of Kotz was published the following year, and the notes of the hymn - for the first time in Russia - in 1906. Russian revolutionary practice made important changes to the intonation of the anthem. Degeyter conceived his melody in the character of a vigorous, fast two-quarter march, like the popular songs of the French Revolution of 1789 - "Qa ira", "Carmagnola" and others. In Russia, this melody received a wide, solemn chant, acquired a powerful, victorious sound. And already in Russian Transcription of "The Internationale" was perceived by the peoples of the world as a hymn of international proletarian solidarity.

V. I. Lenin highly appreciated the ideological and artistic, agitational significance of the proletarian anthem. Pottier he called "one of the greatest propagandists through song". And speaking of The Internationale, V. I. Lenin pointed out: “This song has been translated into all European and not only European languages. In whatever country the conscientious worker finds himself, wherever fate throws him, no matter how a stranger he feels himself, without a language, without acquaintances, far from his homeland, he can find comrades and friends for himself by the familiar tune of the Internationale.

Period of "update"; flourishing of French musical culture in the last decades of the 19th century

The overthrow of the Second Empire led to the elimination of those obstacles that retarded the development of the French economy and culture. The problem of democratization of art, bringing it closer to the interests and needs of the broad masses, was acutely faced by artists. But the established republican regime was bourgeois, and by the end of the century - on the eve of the era of imperialism - the reactionary aspects of the ideology of the ruling classes were becoming stronger and stronger. Thus, the contradictions deepened in the musical culture of France and in the work of its individual representatives.

In the next two decades, a lot of valuable, progressive things have come to light that have enriched the concert, theatrical and creative practice. But this movement was inconsistent, sometimes compromise, unstable, because reality itself was characterized by sharp social contradictions.

French historians call this time the "period of renewal". This definition, however, suffers from inaccuracy: in the last third of the 19th century, French musical art was not so much “renewed” as it more clearly revealed those artistic trends that had emerged earlier. At the same time, new trends were also outlined - the features of musical impressionism were gradually formed.

The revival in public life significantly affected the expansion of the range and more mass forms of concert and theatrical life. To a lesser extent, this affected the Grand Opera, but the activities of the Comic Opera theater acquired a wide scope, on the stage of which - contrary to its name - works of various genres were staged, including contemporary French authors (from Bizet's Carmen to Pelléas and Mélisande" Debussy). At the same time, the proportion of symphony concerts increased sharply - they were held in Paris by two organizations, one headed by conductor Edouard Colonne (existed since 1873), the other - by Charles Lamoureux (since 1881). Chamber concerts also began to be systematically given.

In raising the general tone of the musical life of France, the role of the "National Society" is significant. It was created in 1871 on the initiative of Saint-Saens, with the close participation of Frank - as a response to the nationwide patriotic upsurge - and pursued the goal of all-round propaganda of the works of French authors. This society regularly organized concerts contemporary music and for thirty years gave over three hundred concerts. It not only fought for the rights of composers, but at first contributed to the rallying of their ranks. However, the contradictory course in the development of French music also had an effect here: the ideological confusion that emerged towards the end of the century paralyzed the activities of the National Society by this time.

The “renewal period” was also relatively short. Thus, the best time in the work of Offenbach or Gounod falls at the end of the 50s and 60s; Bizet - at the beginning of the 70s; Franck, Massenet, Lalo, Chabrier - at 70 -80s; Saint-Saens worked most productively from the late 60s to the 80s, etc. Nevertheless, a turning point occurred: it was this period that was marked by high artistic achievements. "Carmen" by Bizet, the ballets "Coppelia", "Sylvia" and the opera "Lakmé" by Delibes, the operas "Manon" and "Werther" by Massenet, "Samson and Delilah" by Saint-Saens, etc. In the field of symphonic and chamber music - these are, first of all, the works of the mature period of Franck's work, the deep content and artistic perfection of which opened a new chapter in the history of French music, as well as virtuoso concert and other works by the prolific Saint-Saens; along with them and partly under their influence, a number of other major figures of national art.

Here are their names (works are indicated, mainly created before the beginning of the 20th century).

Edward Lalo(1823-1892), a violinist by education, is the author of the popular five-part Spanish Symphony for violin and orchestra (1874), the two-part Norwegian Rhapsody for the same composition (1879), the g-moll symphony (1886), the ballet " Namuna (1882), the opera The King of the City of Is (1876, premiered in 1882). His music is light and elegant, the melodies, usually short, are in relief, the rhythms are sharp and piquant, the harmony is fresh. Basically, it is dominated by joyful tones without pretensions to thoughtfulness.

Emmanuelle Chabrier(1841-1894) - a temperamental artist endowed with juicy humor, best known for his colorful rhapsody poem "Spain" (1883). For the musical theatre, he wrote the operetta The Star (1874), the two-act opera Gwendoline (1886), which reflected his passion for Wagner, and the cheerfully national comic opera The Reluctant King (1887). Chabrier also left a number of piano pieces, original in style.

Vincent d "Andy(1851-1931), the closest and most faithful student of Frank, was one of the founders and permanent leader of the "Singing School" (Schola cantorum, organized in 1896) - the most authoritative, along with the Paris Conservatory, music and educational institution in France. Peru d "Andy owns many works, including operas and symphonies. In his early work, the three-part "Symphony on a Mountain Theme" (with the participation of the piano, 1886), the composer's individual traits were clearly manifested: his works attract with a strict sublimity of ideas, careful thoughtfulness of the composition Particularly significant are the merits of d "Andy in awakening a wider interest in the folk music of France and in trying to implement it in his work; in addition to the above-mentioned composition, another three-part symphony entitled "Summer Day in the Mountains" (1905) is indicative in this respect. He paid much attention to the study of early music. However, adherence to clerical dogmas narrowed the ideological horizons of d "Andy, leaving a reactionary imprint on all his activities.

Henri Duparc(1848-1933, since 1885, as a result of a nervous shock, he retired from musical life) most fully showed his outstanding talent, marked by courageous strength, a penchant for expressing dramatic feelings, in the field of chamber and vocal music - his romances are performed to this day. In the list of his works, the symphonic poem "Lenora" (after Burger, 1875) also stands out, written, by the way, before similar works by his teacher Frank.

Ernest Chausson(1855-1899) is the author of the dramatic "Poem" for violin and orchestra (1896), the three-part symphony in B-dur (1890), and many other works, including wonderful romances. Subtle lyricism, veiled with melancholy, with bright flashes of drama, sophistication of harmonic expressive means are most characteristic of his music.

At the end of the 19th century, Gabrielle also won recognition. Fauré(1845-1924), nicknamed the "French Schuman". His first creative period was closed by the violin sonata A-dur (1876). The concert repertoire contains many vocal and piano works Fauré (among the latter are barcaroles, impromptu, nocturnes, preludes; Ballade for piano and orchestra op. 19, 1889, and for the same composition Fantasia op. 111, 1918). In 1897, the largest teacher and musical figure in France, Paul Duke(1865-1935) wrote the famous orchestral scherzo The Sorcerer's Apprentice. By this time, the musical genius of Claude had fully matured. Debussy(1862-1918): he had already written The Afternoon of a Faun (1894) and Three Nocturnes (1899, first performance 1900) for orchestra; work on the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) was coming to an end. But this music belongs more to the 20th than to the 19th century, and therefore will not be considered in this book.

The French musical culture of the second half of the last century is represented by a number of great performers. These are the conductors named above Charles Lamoureux (1834 - 1899) and Edouard Colonne (1838-1910). Among the pianists are the outstanding teachers Antoine François Marmontel (1816-1898) and Louis Dieumer (1843-1919; Tchaikovsky dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to him), who replaced him as the leading professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory, as well as Camille Saint-Saens, who gave concerts everywhere. . Outstanding masters of vocal art were Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910, her friendly ties with representatives of Russian culture, especially with Turgenev), Desiree Artaud (1835-1907, was friendly with Tchaikovsky), Gilbert Dupre (1809-1896). A special “Paris violin school” was also formed, headed by Henri viet tan(1820-1881, since 1871 - professor at the Brussels Conservatory); this school had a long tradition associated with the names of Pierre Gavinier, Giovanni Viotti and Charles Berio.

In the first half of the 19th century, Paris can certainly be called the musical capital of Europe. Many major composers lived here (Chopin, Liszt, Rossini), all outstanding musicians tried to come here with concerts.

The theater has always occupied an exceptional place in the artistic life of the country. In the first half of the 19th century, many new, romantic searches were connected precisely with the theater. Victor Hugo, the greatest writer and playwright, was the herald of French romanticism. In the preface to his drama ʼʼCromwellʼʼ, he formulated the basic aesthetic principles of the new, romantic theater. It was the theater that became the arena of the struggle for the new art. The ideas of Hugo and his like-minded people were also reflected in the French musical theater of that time, ᴛ.ᴇ. at the opera.

French opera in the first half of the 19th century is represented by two main genres. First of all, this is a comic opera associated with the names of A. Boildieu, F. Aubert, F. Herold, F. Halevi, A. Adam (the latter also approved romantic direction in ballet). Comic opera, which originated in the 18th century, did not become a vivid reflection of new, romantic tendencies. As the influence of romanticism, only the strengthening of the lyrical beginning can be noted in it (an illustrative example is the opera ʼʼThe White Ladyʼʼ Boildieu).

A vivid reflection of French musical romanticism was a new genre that had developed in France by the 1930s: the grand opera (Grand Opera). A grand opera is an opera of a monumental, decorative style, associated with historical (mainly) plots, distinguished by unusual pomp of productions and spectacular use of crowd (choral) scenes. Among the first examples of the genre is the opera ʼʼThe Mute from Porticiʼʼ by Aubert (1828). And in the 1930s, this genre established itself on the French stage as a leading one and was represented by its classical examples (Meyerbeer's operas ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ, ʼʼProphetʼʼ, Halevy's opera ʼʼZhidovkaʼʼ).

The style of the grand French opera was largely determined by the requirements of the Grand Opera theater (hence the name of the genre), which retained the status of a royal opera and focused on the tastes of an aristocratic audience.

The standard for the great French opera, of course, was the classic tragedy and its musical equivalent, the lyrical tragedy (Lully, Rameau). Both the compositional framework of a grand opera of 5 acts and the staging pomposity of the performance go back to the theater of classicism. Following the classicist tragedy, the plot of a grand opera was based, as a rule, on historical events of the past with the obligatory participation of real historical characters (in the ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ - Queen Margot). Another ʼʼtrademarkʼʼ of the grand opera was the involvement of a ballet suite and monumental choral episodes, regulated by Lully.

The grand French opera largely adopted the aesthetics of the romantic drama developed by V. Hugo. First of all, this is the same as in the drama, a complex interweaving of the personal fate of the characters and historical events, the great role of historical props, the desire for spectacular embellishment of events. In the 1920s, historical novels in Europe experienced the peak of popularity (W. Scott, P. Merime, V. Hugo). The historical novel was perceived by contemporaries as a "high" genre, equal in status to scientific research. And it is the historical plots that become the most typical for the great French opera. The theme of the big opera is ϶ᴛᴏ the theme of big popular movements.

A huge role in the formation of a new opera genre was played by the French librettist Eugene Scribe. It is he who owns the libretto of the best examples of this genre. He was Meyerbeer's constant collaborator. F. Liszt saw in Scribe the greatest representative of operatic dramaturgy. He was called ʼʼthe master of a well-made playʼʼ. Scribe, of course, brilliantly mastered the poetics of the romantic historical novel and used it in his librettos, sometimes relying on a specific literary prototype (the ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ, for example, were created based on the ʼʼChronicles of the Times of Charles IXʼʼ by P. Merimee). The basis of the plot of a grand opera was usually a love affair - a fictional episode of private life - against the backdrop of a famous fragment of history. The standard melodramatic move - love between representatives of two warring coalitions - predetermines a fatal outcome and motivates the introduction of spectacular battle scenes into the opera. Scribe's libretto is very sketchy. We can single out the most stable plot motifs that he uses:

Tragic misunderstanding or baseless accusation

Secret beneficence

Forced marriage

conspiracy, attempt

self-sacrifice

In fact, Scribe became the creator of a new type of operatic libretto. Before him, the standard was the libretto of Italian opera seria (also, by the way, associated with historical or legendary plots), the classic examples of which belonged to the Italian playwright Metastasio. At the same time, in Italian opera, the feelings of the characters are always in the foreground. Italian opera - ϶ᴛᴏ state opera, and their display is carried out mainly in arias, which form the basis of the dramaturgy of Italian opera. For Scribe, who felt the new trends well, the main thing in the historical plot is showing situations sometimes stunning in their surprise. He gave the importance of the main to what had hitherto been secondary. The action, full of surprises - from situation to situation - had a great influence on the musical and dramatic development and on musical dramaturgy. The identification of situations in musical action led to an increase in the importance of ensembles, choirs - the opposition of clashing groups and even masses in music. It was the monumental mass scenes that determined the spectacular style of the grand opera and struck the imagination of the public. The weak side of this genre was the lack of brightness and originality of the characters. The grand opera struck not with its psychologism, but with purely external effects.

The real sensation of the big opera was the revolution made by their creators in scenography, where conditional classical interiors were replaced by naturalistic landscapes. The latest achievements of technology were also used in the opera. For example, the picture of the eruption of Vesuvius in ʼʼMute from Porticiʼʼ, which amazed the public. The ʼʼElectric Sunʼʼ in ʼʼThe Prophetʼʼ (1849) entered the history of stage design as the first use of electricity in the theatre. In ʼʼZhidovkaʼʼ Halevi, 250 horses participated in the solemn procession. Another attribute of a great opera is stunning scenes of horrors and catastrophes (the scene of St. Bartholomew's Night in the Huguenots ʼʼ).

The composition of the grand opera took into account the psychology of the audience (fatigue attention). The opera was large-scale, but consisted of short, brightly contrasting in music and scenery actions (a standard composition consists of 5 actions).

The first completed example of the genre is considered to be Aubert's opera ʼʼThe Mute from Porticiʼʼ. In 1829, Rossini wrote ʼʼWilhelm Tellʼʼ, a work Italian artist, in many ways adjoining the aesthetics and style of the great French opera (remember that Rossini lived in Paris in those years). The further development of the genre is inextricably linked with the name of Meyerbeer (ʼʼRobert-Devilʼʼ, 1831, ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ, 1838. ʼʼProphetʼʼ, 1849, ʼʼAfricanʼʼ, 1838-1865). Aubert and Halévy worked in this genre alongside Meyerbeer (in the 1930s, the operas ʼʼGustav 111, or Un ballo in mascheraʼʼ Auber and ʼʼQueen of Cyprusʼʼ, ʼʼKarl V1ʼʼ, ʼʼZhidovka, or CardinalʼʼHalevi's daughter) were created in this genre.

In the 30-50s of the 19th century, there was an intensive expansion of the style of grand French opera to the opera stages of the world. According to the French model, the operas ʼʼRienziʼʼ by R. Wagner, ʼʼEsmeraldaʼʼDargomyzhsky, ʼʼWilliam Tellʼʼ by Rossini, ʼʼThe Favoriteʼʼ by Donizetti were created, elements of the ʼʼgrand styleʼʼ are used by Verdi in a number of his operas, for example, in ʼʼʼʼʼ. Interestingly, many local opera houses they order librettos for new operas in Paris. At the same time, the big French opera did not stand the test of time. It bore the stamp of the tastes of the aristocratic public of the 30s and 40s, and in the second half of the 19th century it sharply lost its popularity. In many ways, the decline in its prestige was due to the approval of an alternative model of opera performance, created by Richard Wagner and designed for an intellectual listener. At the beginning of the 20th century, Meyerbeer's music was already becoming a stage rarity. These are only exclusive ʼʼrestorationʼʼ productions and the musical life of individual numbers from his operas.
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The works of Halévy and Aubert do not appear at all in the list of popular and repertoire ones.

The figure of Meyerbeer is the brightest in the history of grand opera. His creative activity met with the most controversial assessments. The merits and demerits of the grand opera in his works were expressed especially fully. Goethe, for example, believed that Meyerbeer was the only composer who could write music for Faust. G. Berlioz called Meyerbeer ʼʼone of the greatest of the existing composersʼʼ. And A.Serov, on the contrary, remarks: ʼʼWho sincerely, in fact, loves the music of, say, Beethoven, he definitely cannot admire Meyerbeerʼʼ. The controversy around his name testifies to the novelty and even the reformatory nature of his works. It was Meyerbeer who created the ʼʼbig romantic styleʼʼ, significantly influencing opera life Europe in the middle of the 19th century. For several decades, the model of the opera performance created by him in the 30s was in the lead on the musical stages of Europe.

Meyerbeer spent his youth in Germany. He belonged to the generation of the creators of the German romantic opera, was friends with K. M. Weber. But - he left Germany early, feeling the limitations of the German musical and theatrical environment. The next period of his life is connected with Italy, where the young composer mastered the ʼʼsecretsʼʼ of operatic art. He mastered the Italian operatic style to perfection, as evidenced by the rather successful production of his opera The Crusaders in Egypt in Venice in 1824. From Italy, Meyerbeer heads to Paris. Here he finds ʼʼ his authorʼʼ - E. Skrib, at that time already a well-known playwright. He already has two interesting opera librettos to his credit: ʼʼThe White Ladyʼʼ and ʼʼThe Mute from Porticiʼʼ. Meyerbeer wanted the first score written for Paris to be an opera ʼʼcapable of becoming a great, exciting dramaʼʼ. Scribe, like no one else, was able to embody this ideal. He understood that only something extravagant, luxurious in production, and at the same time touching could attract the Parisian public. It was just such an opera that they wrote with Meyerbeer in 1831: ʼʼRobert the Devilʼʼ. German roots are still tangible here (horror romance), but in terms of scale, showiness and brightness, this is, of course, an example of a great Parisian style.

The best work of the composer was the opera ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ, completed in 1838 again in collaboration with Scribe (according to Mérimée). The plot is from the history of the religious struggle of the 16th century, tragic love Huguenot officer Raoul de Nangis and Valentina, daughter of the leader of the Catholics, Count Saint-Brie. The opera has many bright, spectacular scenes, well-defined characters. But, which is typical for the genre, the action is complicated by many secondary episodes (the feast of nobles, the ballet of bathers, gypsy songs and dances, the solemn train of Queen Margot, etc.) Some of them recreate the flavor of the era (the scene of the blessing of swords), most are purely external, decorative. Contemporaries in this opera were especially struck by monumental folk scenes, clashes between warring groups (act 3, a scene of a quarrel between Catholics and Huguenots).

Interesting and new in ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ is the delineation of historical color. As in romantic drama (for example, by Hugo), in the opera great attention is paid to historicism, historical setting, historical costumes. The excessive attention of the French theater to external details was pointed out by V. Kuchelbecker: ʼʼHugo's talent is powerful, but chairs, pants, cornices take him too muchʼʼ. Like the writers of his era (Hugo, Stendhal, Mérimée), Meyerbeer sometimes turns to authentic materials of the era. To characterize the Huguenots, he introduces into the opera the famous chorale attributed to Luther ʼʼThe strong stronghold is our godʼʼ. This is the leitmotif of the opera, the introduction is built on its theme, it appears in all important moments of the action, symbolizing devotion to the idea. The intonations of the chorale are also present in the description of the old Huguenot soldier Marseille, Raoul's mentor. The chorale becomes a kind of ʼʼsign of the 16th centuryʼʼ in the opera. The song of the Huguenot soldiers ʼʼRataplanʼʼ, performed by the a capella choir, is also a quote from an old French folk song.

ʼʼHuguenotsʼʼ is the largest and most viable phenomenon in the genre of grand opera in France. Already in the following works of Meyerbeer (ʼʼProphetʼʼ, ʼʼAfricanʼʼ) features of the ʼʼsunsetʼʼ genre are visible.

In general, the great French opera is of interest to us not so much as a musical phenomenon (it has already been noted that only some of the most striking fragments of the great operas outlived their time), but as a historical phenomenon that had a significant impact on the development of the opera genre in the 19th century.

French opera of the first half of the 19th century - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "French opera of the first half of the 19th century" 2017, 2018.