Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T21:23:04.082Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Experiences of Popular Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2021

David Charlton
David Charlton
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London (Emeritus)
Get access

Summary

Chapter 6 brings together evidence of all kinds from the whole period to create a vivid picture of popular opera and its audience in the theatre. ‘Theatre Size and Ambience’ correlates detailed historical information to produce a systematic overview of many theatre buildings, together with interior details and size of musical ensembles. Ticket admission prices at the Opéra, Comédie-Italienne and the Fair theatres are compared and assessed. Descriptions by a number of eyewitnesses (French, Italian, English, Irish and German observers) combine to give an impression of activity in popular theatre seen from the audience’s point of view. In a survey of staging, the evidence is both visual and textual: engraved and painted illustrations are analysed and ‘corrected’ so that the proportions of stage sets can be understood. Then a synopsis of stage directions suggests the material range of experience in popular opera. A survey of lighting effects is discussed in relation to stage context, showing how some comedies combined lighting effects with music.

Keywords

eyewitnesstheatre locationtheatre dimensionsFoiresParisticket pricesstaginglightingaudiences
Type
Chapter
Information
Popular Opera in Eighteenth-Century France
Music and Entertainment before the Revolution
 , pp. 134 - 155
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×