LE MERVEILLEUX AND OPERATIC

REFORM IN 18TH-CENTURY

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FRENCH OPERA
By AUBREY S. GARLINGTON, JR.

Deliver me from the childish genre which

you call the marvelous, when it is mar-
velous only to you and to your children;
be sincere in your repentance, and I will
again stretch out my arms to you and
will forget the iniquities of your fathers
and your own . . . And I shall drive out
from your theatre both the demons and
the shades, and the fairies and the genii,
and all the monsters with which your
poets have corrupted it through the power •
which they have conferred upon wands
in fits of their madness, without my con-
sent.1
By the "marvelous" Grimm meant "those [scenes] which suppose some
Divine Power or Magick Production, as the descent of some God from
Heaven, or the rising of some Fury from Hell."2 Every aspect of the
marvelous is to be found in this definition—heaven, hell, divinities, furies,
as well as effective staging which must appear as if it were "magic." In
other words, the marvelous should be "the art of suggesting unreality . . .
or an illusion of reality."1
The role of le merveilleux in the drama, as well as the opera, had been
one of the issues in innumerable esthetic and critical discussions in 17th-
1
F. W. von Grimm, Le petite prophete dt Boehmisch-Broda, in Source Read-
ings in Music History, transl. Oliver Strunk, New York, 1950, pp. 631-32.
2
This definition of le merveilleux, given by the Abbe d'Aubignac in La Pratique
du thi&tre, published in 1657, is taken from the English translation of 1657, The
Whole Art oj the Stage, quoted in A. M. Nagler, A Source Book in Theatrical His-
tory, New York, 1959, p. 174.
3
Maria Deenen, Le Merveilleux dans I'oeuure de VUliers de V Isle-A dam, Paris,
1939, p. 9.

484
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 485

and 18th-century France. In his famous preface to IphigSnie Racine had

scorned the marvelous because whatever might have "found some cre-
dence in the age of Euripides . . . would have appeared to us as too
absurd and incredible."4 And this is entirely in keeping with a realization
of Aristotelian unities for the dramatic stage, since Aristotle had per-
mitted the marvelous a position only in the epic poem, and even there
supernatural intervention, plus the inevitable machinery, was not to be
a part of the denouement.5

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But regardless of the many objections raised in the 17th century
against the marvelous as a part of the legitimate theatrical tradition, there
was one genre where it was allowed the widest freedom and liberty—
the opera. All spectacular appearances of gods, goddesses, furies, demons,
witches, etc. were not only tolerated in the opera but encouraged.
Charles Perrault went so far as to claim that since the comedy was based
solely on truth and since the tragedy was a combination of both truth
and some facet of the marvelous, it was necessary that one genre be de-
voted to the marvelous exclusively.8 This was opera's unique function.
And French Baroque opera certainly bears out this conviction, for the
operas of Lully, Destouches, Rameau, et at. are filled with the most fan-
tastic presentations of unreality. France became " the home of the ma-
chine opera"7 and composers accepted this tradition as an unavoidable,
even desirable convention. Despite sporadic attempts to make the
marvelous a part of legitimate tradition, this genre found its true
home only in the tragidie lyrique. So closely aligned with the operatic
stage had the marvelous become by the mid-18th century that
it was possible for the Abb6 Batteaux to make a clear-cut distinction
between two types of theatrical practice, merely on the basis of the mar-
velous: "[there is] one [type of drama], the heroic, which is simply
called tragedy, the other, the marvelous, which has been named the lyric
spectacle or the opera."8
It is within the context of this long-standing tradition of the French
operatic stage that Grimm's censure of the marvelous must be placed.
But this personal diatribe is only a small part of his excessive zeal for
reform of the whole genre of opera. Nor is Grimm alone in his views,
* Quoted in George Steiner, The Death of Tragedy, New York, 1961, p. 83.
8
Rene Bray, La Formation dt la doctrine classique en France, Paris, 1927, p. 238.
6
P. V. Delaportc, Du merveilleux dans la littirature francaist sous le rigne de
Louis XIV, Paris, 1891, p. 350.
'Donald J. Grout, The Machine Opera, in Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum,
IX (Nov. 5, 1941), 103.
• Abbe Batteaux, Les Beaux-Arts reduits a un seul principe, Paris, 1747, p. 219.
486 The Musical Quarterly

for both Diderot and Rousseau echo his criticism of the marvelous.
"The world of magic can please children," states Diderot, ". . . the
real world is pleased only by reason." Rousseau announced that the
"marvelous was as well placed in the epic poem as it was ridiculous in
the theater.'" The fervor that these great philosophes exhibited for
operatic reform (in all its guises) was motivated by one great goal:
the French opera was to be remodeled along Italian lines.10 These re-
formers concentrated upon the destruction of the libretto as a completely

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separate entity from the classical tragedy, and, since the marvelous had
had no place in the classical tragedy, it was to be eliminated from the
opera as well. In addition, sub-plots were to be restricted, the spectacle
diminished, and subject matter was to be taken from history as well as
classical mythology. Instead of being "opera," these works would hence-
forth be "dramas" with music. There was to be one basic requirement
for any libretto—it must be simplified, and in this search for simplicity
the marvelous was to be discarded.
The question is not whether the encyclopedists were completely suc-
cessful in achieving their goals, for no reform movement ever entirely
realizes its aims. The real issue concerns the effectiveness of these pro-
posals and how they were realized in French opera during the last
half of the 18th century. Only in an essentially literary nation such as
France could a critique of the opera be based primarily upon the libretto
and the mise-en-sdne, widi only minor attention devoted to the music!
In the following discussion we shall concentrate on the role of the
marvelous in the "reform" operas prior to 1789.
Guiet11 cites three opera librettos before Gluck's first appearance on
the French stage that illustrate this reform movement: Ernelinde, 1767
(later drastically revised and produced at court12), by Philidor; Adile
de Ponthieu, 1772, by LaBorde (in 1781 Piccini set the same libretto);
and Sabinus, 1773, by Gossec. The first of these is based on an older
libretto, Ricimero, re de' Vandali, first composed in Venice in 1684;
* Quoted in William L. Crosten, French Grand Opera, an Art and a Business,
New York, 1948, p. 84.
10
For a lengthy discussion of the reforms of the philosophes see Alfred Richard
Oliver, The Encyclopedists as Critus of Music, New York, 1947, p. 32, passim, ai
well as Eugen Hirschberg, Die Encyklopadisttn und die franzosichtn Optr im 18.
Jahrhundert, Leipzig, 1903.
11
Ren 6 Guiet, VEvolution d'un genre: Le Livret d'opira en France de Gluck
a la Revolution (1774-1793) (Smith College Studies in Modern Literature, XVII),
Northampton, 1937,'p. 43.
u
See A. D. Philidor, Ernelinde, Princesse de Norvige . . . preface A. Pougin,
Paris, n.d., p. 10, passim, where the production history of this work u discussed.
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 487

the second has as its plot a subject derived from medieval lore, and the
third is based upon an actual historical event. Of these three operas,
only Sabinus utilizes the marvelous, apart from the general spectacle;
in this work the "Spirit of Gaul" visits Sabinus in prison, prophesying
some future glories for France. The marvelous in this particular work
was justified because it was used to incite patriotism." In the other two
"reform" operas, the marvelous is completely subordinated, thus demon-
strating a conscious attempt to aid and abet the encyclopedists' reforms

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in at least this one respect.
In order to discuss the full intellectual as well as musical significance
of French opera during this turbulent time, it is necessary to turn to
Gluck, and in this case, to view his operas solely from the standpoint
of his treatment of the marvelous. The older view that Gluck (together
with Calzabigi) was responsible singlehandedly for all operatic reforms
in the latter hah' of the 18th century is no longer tenable, for more recent
critics have been able to discern the impact of both Algarotti's famous
treatise14 and the EncyclopSdie, which began publication in 1751. In
addition, the importance of such outstanding composers as Jommelli
and Traetta, to name but two, has also been recognized by modern
writers. Nevertheless, since Gluck is the most important figure in French
operatic history between Rameau and Cherubini, there is still more than
enough justification for placing a greater stress upon his work while
always taking into consideration the historical importance of minor
composers.
Gluck's operatic reforms are concurrent with his two "reform ballets,"
Don Juan, 1760, written for Angiolini in Vienna, and Semiramide,
written three years after the Italian Orfeo of 1762. As is well known,
the music for the scene in which Don Juan is carried away to hell in
Gluck's ballet is practically identical with the music for the celebrated
Dance of the Furies in Orfeo, but interestingly enough, the Dance
of the Furies was not introduced into Orfeo until the French version,
first produced in August 1774." In acceding to the known devotion
of the French to the ballet, the composer extended the dance sequence
u
Michel Chabonon, De la musique considhie en ellt-mimt, quoted in Guiet,
op. cit., p. 44.
'* Published in 1755, the Saggio sopra Vopera in musica was translated into
French by 1757 and published originally in the Mercure; these essays were later
brought out in book form under the title, Essai SUT VOpira, the translator being
Chatellux, himself a contributor to the Encyclopidie; thus Algarotti'i relationship to
the encyclopedists is easily discerned.
"Alfred Einstein, Gluck, transl. Eric Blom, London, 1954, p. 83.
488 The Musical Quarterly

in the second act by inserting music differing completely from that for
the Blessed Spirits. In terms of dramatic effect alone, apart from the
magnificent music, it was a stroke of genius.
In this act Gluck draws a sharp distinction between Furies and the
souls residing in Elysium, but it is interesting to note that for him there
were apparently no essential differences between the devils of a Chris-
tian hell as portrayed in Don Juan and the Furies of the mythological
underworld in Orphee. Since both scenes were danced, the costumes,

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choreography, and decor, plus the all-essential music, are more than
sufficient to convey the terror of the hereafter to the audience. But in
OrphSe, when perdition is left behind, a sublime concept of the spiritual
world that would appeal to a rational society and civilization is en-
countered. The Furies are made much more horrible by their juxtaposi-
tion to the spirits in Elysium.
The use of lower brasses for underworld scenes, as well as to accom-
pany oracles, is an old convention derived from early Italian opera.
Cavalli had employed such an accompaniment for Medea's famous lam-
entation scene in Giasone; indeed, the stage for such a convention had
been set as far back as Monteverdi's Orfeo. Goldschmidt long ago char-
acterized the role of the lower brasses in 17th-century Italian opera: "In
the entire span of their development, their function has been the same.
Monteverdi in Orfeo, Cavalli in Giasone, and Cesti in Porno d'oro use
trombone choirs to announce (to the spirits of the underworld) the en-
trance of heroes to the region of the dead. [Trombones] indicate the
greatest solemnity."1' Gluck's trombones in Orphe'e are in the direct line
of descent for this convention.
Save for the addition of the Dance of the Furies, the French version
of Orjeo does not differ drastically as a presentation of the marvelous
from the Italian version.
A furious clatter is not the only means that Gluck has of musically
representing the marvelous in the two ballets. The following passage,
taken from S emir amide, accompanies the elaborate coronation of Sem-
iramide; the priestesses bedeck her in the proper robes while homage
is paid to her as "the most noble lady of Nineveh."17 Even when taken
from context the harmonic implications of this example (if we keep
in mind the Dance of the Furies also) are important. Later, the use
of diminished chords and chromatic alteration to accompany scenes
of horror and terror become the most over-used and maligned harmonic
"Hugo Goldschmidt, Geschichte dtr italienuchen Oper, Leipzig, 1901, I, 151.
17
Gluck, Semiramis, piano score by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Vienna, 1942, p. 11.
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 489
Adagio
Oboe solo

'$

dich6 of the late 18th century. Of course, Gluck is not the first com-
poser to employ these sounds for such effects,18 but in the light of later

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developments, it is most interesting to note that Gluck employed the
peculiar quality associated with the diminished seventh chord not so
much for modulatory purposes, as had often been the case in the Ba-
roque, as for scenic description. It becomes no longer mandatory that
the diminished seventh chord be properly resolved in every instance,
for such a chord may now be used for purposes of sonority alone—a
striking demonstration of the extra-musical connotations of music itself.
Thus, what Longyear calls the "chief harmonic contribution"18 of the
"rescue" opera composers finds its genesis much earlier.
Of Gluck's six major "reform" operas, four bear important traces
of the marvelous, and significantly, only Iphigenie en Aulide (1774)
subordinates this quality. It will be recalled that in an appendix to his
Saggio Algarotti himself had included a libretto based on this legend
because he believed it was an ideal story for an opera. Since this is the
work Gluck chose for his French debut, it is apparent that nothing was
to be left undone in an effort to please the French critics. Many cur-
rents of thought were prevalent in 1774, and French opera reflects the
intellectual near-anarchy of the time; for the philosophes, however,
Iphigenie en Aulide is much closer to being the "ideal" opera than is
Orphie. There is great simplicity in the main plot; there are no sub-
plots; the emotional characteristics of the major protagonists are sharply
drawn; there is genuine dramatic conflict, and the denouement does
not depend upon a visual representation of the marvelous, since the
substitute sacrifice occurs offstage. On the other hand, the appearance
of Amour in Orphie as well as the dependence upon a deus ex machina
for the final dramatic resolution makes Orphee an old-fashioned opera,
for French tastes at least, when it is compared to Iphiginie en Aulide.
In 1759 the dramatist Saint-Foix had produced his version of Iphi-
18
In Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Part II. for example, when the choruj screams
out "Barrabas," the harmony is a diminished seventh chord used for its expressive,
even shocking sound.
19
A. Morgan Longyear, Notes on the Rescue Opera, in The Musical Quarterly,
XLV (1959), 59.
490 The Musical Quarterly

ginie en Aulide with a most important change from Racine's original,

upon which he had based his play—Diana appeared in a bed of clouds
above the stage and resolved the dramatic confusion in the time-honored
tradition of the deux ex machina. In his libretto for Gluck, de Roullet
suppressed the marvelous element completely, but because the ending
was considered weak at the first performance, a second version of this
ending was made sometime after 1774; in this version the marvelous
was incorporated into the opera much in the same manner as in the

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Saint-Foix play. The first version, however, was considered to be the
better of the two, and today the opera is generally performed with the
original ending, not the revised version.20
At the conclusion of Paride ed Elena, 1770, there is what at first sight
appears to be a standard presentation of the formal deus ex machina,
but the dramatic appearance of Pallas Athene solves nothing, prevents
nothing, and in actuality serves only for a gloomy prognostication of the
final outcome of the events arising from the elopement of Paris and
Helen. (It is interesting to note that Paride ed Elena, written for Vienna,
was never revised for the Paris stage.) This scene is in the form of a
long aria and chorus, not in the recitative style that is usual when a
deux ex machina is presented not only in Gluckian opera, i.e. Alceste
or Iphiginie en Tauride, but in earlier operas as well. By giving Pallas
Athene a long aria Gluck has subtly announced that her appearance
is not to resolve the plot She merely casts a long shadow over the future,
a future that lies outside the boundaries of the opera itself.
Iphiginie en Tauride, 1779, is a curious amalgamation of the old and
the new. When Diana appears at the end of the opera, the deus ex
machina is presented in a normal way with no deviation at all from
earlier models. In the portrayal of the Furies, however, a greater subtlety
is found. In other versions of this legend (not necessarily operatic) the
Furies that have been ever present with Orestes since he murdered his
mother are with him still, visibly, much in the same way as they are
present in Orfeo. It is entirely probable that Guillard, the librettist, pur-
posely suppressed their appearance here since Furies were not portrayed
in Gormand's drama of 1757, upon which Guillard based his libretto.11
Gluck does present them musically, however, for in the famous scene
when Orestes sings "le calme rentre dans mon coeur" there is a musical
reference to these demons which are never absent, and their voices are
heard shortly thereafter, from offstage, in the terrifying chorus, "Vengons
10
See Guiet, op. cit., p. 53, for a discussion of the ending to Iphiginie en Aulidt.
J1
See Guiet, op. cit., p. 86.
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 491

et la nature . . ." While Orestes sleeps these demons storm around his
bed, and true psychological terror appears on the operatic stage in a
much more powerful way than ever before.
Alceste presents more dramatic and theatrical problems than any of
Gluck's operas, and the presentation of the marvelous is particularly
weak. In general, endings in Gluck's operas are poorly constructed, and
the ending for Alceste is one of his poorest. In April 1776, when Alceste
was first presented in France, the opera was concluded by Apollo de-

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scending to restore Alcestis to Admetus, in accordance with the Italian
version of 1768. The French Alceste was very nearly a failure, and in
June of the same year, a new ending was contrived in which another
character, Hercules, was added, and Apollo's role condensed to such
an extent that the deux ex machina was now completely unnecessary as
well as ineffectual. Apollo makes his first obeisance to Hercules as the
vanquisher of the gods, and only then does he turn to congratulate
Alcestis and Admetus for their love and marital felicity. The addition
of Hercules had one advantage: it placed the libretto much closer not
only to Euripides but also to Quinault's libretto for Lully; nevertheless,
the last-minute deliverance is hardly consistent with the lofty ideals of
the libretto.11
The French version of Alceste also subordinated the marvelous, but
only to a very limited extent, since Gluck changed the second act of the
Italian version so that the long scene in which Alcestis wanders along
the river banks leading to the underworld was not only transplanted to
the third act but was considerably abbreviated. The monotone utterances
of the oracle fitted the older conventions for these scenes completely,
being accompanied by low brass, doubled by strings. The dactyllic
rhythm basic in this scene is also a time-honored cliche" of operatic tra-
dition, but more importantly, the monotone utterances by the spirits of
the underworld provide an all-important disclosure concerning Gluck's
attitude towards musical settings for such phantoms.
Corancez, in La Soiree perdue d I'Opha, related the following:
The chorus of the infernal deities struck me with terror, but I could not conceive
what had led M. Gluck to make these four verses be sung to a single note.
"It is not possible," he said to me, "to imitate the language of fantastic beings,
since we have never heard them; but we have to try to approach the idea* in-
spired in us by the functions with which they are charged. Devils, for instance,
have a conventional character that is well known and very pronounced; they ought
to be dominated by excess of rage and madness. But the infernal gods are not
33
For an extcniive discussion of the last act, see Rudolf Gcrber's edition
(Samtliche Werke, Abteilung I: Musikdramen: Band 7 ) , Kaxsel, 1957, p. ix, passim.
492 The Musical Quarterly
devils; we regard them as the ministers of destiny; they are impassible. Alcestis
and Admetus are indifferent to them; all they have to do with them is the ac-
complishing of destiny. In order to delineate this special impassibility of theirs,
I thought I could not do better than deprive them of all accent, reserving for
my orchestra the task of painting all that is terrible in their announcement."11

The older doctrine of "imitation" is cast aside in order that these

fantastic beings may be properly "represented," and in the orchestra at
that, anticipating somewhat the treatment of the Furies in IphigSnie en

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Tauride. It is a curious statement, for it is to be seriously doubted that
either Gluck, Corancez, or anyone else had ever seen a devil; yet, it
was claimed that their "conventional character" is well known and
"pronounced."
Gluck's polemic is not always clear, and it is probable that his philoso-
phizing may be strictly after the fact; in other words, he sought a
logical explanation for what was originally genuine intuition. Yet, by
even making such a statement,24 Gluck reveals the decline of music as
"imitation" in favor of a representational, realistic musical portrayal for
certain scenes, and these scenes are to be portrayed by the orchestra.
Armide, 1777, is a curious work. It is the most "French" of all Gluck's
operas, and the libretto's long popularity contributed greatly to its suc-
cess. Quinault was followed closely, but Gluck succeeded in making the
main character far more of a human being than did Lully. In Act III,
after Hate is summoned to exorcise love, Armide changes her mind and
turns on Hate at the very last moment; she then makes an appeal to
the God of Love that is quite different from Quinault's original ending.
There is also a Dance of the Furies in this scene, but the music is much
weaker than Gluck's previous excursions into demoniacal music. Act
IV is the one act that seems to be unnecessary to the opera, for the
trials and tribulations that Ubalde and the Chevalier Danois encounter
while passing through the magic garden are irrelevant to the main plot.
Here, however, the representation of the marvelous depends primarily
upon the stage machinery, and the marvelous is not significantly de-
picted in the music. Even at the time of its composition, Armide was
a decidedly old-fashioned libretto presented in new musical clothing.
But the whole problem of appropriate music for the scenes depicting the
"terrible" has been clouded by later musical achievements:
23
Gustave Deanoireiterres, Cluck et Piccinni, 2nd ed., Paris, 1875, pp. 135-36. I
have used the translation in Ernest Newman, Gluck and the Opera, London, 1895,
pp. 155-56.
u
We may assume that the statement reported by Corancez conveyed Gluck's
thoughts if not hu actual words, since he does not appear to have repudiated it.
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 493
The horrific and macabre in music of the eighteenth century seems childish to
those who know nineteenth and twentieth-century music. For with the first per-
formance of Dcr Freischiitz in 1821 a new world of possibilities opened up . . .
Our nervous systems are more complex . . . and we are more sceptical in the
theatre. The rushing scales and diminished sevenths of the opening of Act IV of
Armide doubtless seemed to a contemporary audience an adequate expression of
the horrors of wild beasts and goblins . . . to us they sound infantile.25

In this quotation can be found many of the misunderstandings of

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later scholars concerning the function of music for such works as the
fourth act of Armide. Although Gluck was able to compose suitable
music for a musical representation of the marvelous more skillfully than
any French composer of his age, he was also able to take full advantage
of existing conventions when it suited his purpose. Since Armide was
originally one of the most popular machine-operas that Lully and Quin-
ault ever composed, and furthermore, since this opera was decidedly an
hommage d France on the part of the composer, Gluck felt completely
free to utilize the French stage conventions to the fullest. In general,
purely musical representations of the marvelous without any concern
for stage production are not to be found in French opera before the end
of the 19th century. This most important point is often forgotten in our
own more austere age, which has concerned itself primarily with the
music and has relegated even the libretto, not to mention the production
problems involved, to a minor place in a critical evaluation of opera.
While the music for this type of scene may sound "infantile" to our
ears, the stage machinery was used to augment the often puerile music,
thereby producing a sensational spectacle.
After this brief discussion of Gluck and the marvelous it is apparent
that only in one work, and that his very first for the Parisian stage,
did Gluck subordinate the marvelous in strict accordance with the phil-
osophes' diatribes against this aspect of opera. Paride ed Elena presents
the marvelous very minimally, Iphiginie en Tauride, despite the dea ex
machina, quite subjectively, Orfeo quite openly, and Alceste in a
muddled manner; in Armide it depends almost totally upon stage
machinery. The most obvious reason for Gluck's highly individual treat-
ment of U merveilleux in the light of the grim injunction quoted at the be-
ginning of this paper may be found in an examination of dates. The
Little Prophet of Boemischbroda was wiitten in 1752, one of the first
tracts in the quereUe des buffons. Twenty-two years later Gluck pro-
duced Iphiginie en Aulide in Paris. Now twenty-two years is a very
M
Martin Cooper, Gluck, London, 1935, p. 229.
494 The Musical Quarterly

long time for any reform movement to remain fully effective,M especially
in so volatile a cultural environment as France in the last few years
prior to the Revolution. What is remarkable is that as late as 1774 Gluck
constrained his imagination in order to conform with reforms that were
already past their peak of effectiveness. In his efforts to insure success,
and he was a shrewd business man, Gluck trod very softly and warily
through the wiles of French cultural life. After his success seemed to

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be assured, and only then, did he flout the "rules" regarding the marvel-
ous. The love of stage spectacle in France won over the passion for
rational thought
Gluck was not a slavish follower of the trends or fads. His major con-
tribution to the marvelous for later composers and librettists is to be
found in the increasing predominance of psychological terror and horror,
presented in the. music and not dependent entirely upon machinery for
emotional impact, however close the relationship may be. Gluck's re-
markable feeling for orchestral color also contributed to the resources
used in later operas. The subtleties of Iphiginie en Tauride and even
Alceste, confused though that work is,*7 helped to lay the foundations
for so important a work as Cherubini's Medie, 1797, in which the
magical elements are subordinated throughout in favor of a delineation
of complex human relationships. Nevertheless, Cherubini's great work
is only possible after such operas with Gluckian overtones as Sacchini's
Didon and Oedipe d Colone which, together with Salieri's Dandides,
are full of terror, horror, demons, furies, etc., as well as stage machinery,
all representing "le genre le plus terrible."*8 Even in such a minor opera
as Lemoyne's Electre, 1782, libretto by Guillard, a more brutal pictorial-
** Eugene de Bricqucville, Li Livret tFopira franfais de Lully & Gluck, Paris,
1888, p. 45, quotes part of a satirical poem by Nicolas Barthe, Statute d'Opira,
printed in 1777:
A tous non fiddles sujets
Vents, fantomes, demons, deesses infernales
Dieux de l'Olympe et de la Mer
Habitam des bois et de l'air
Monarques et bergers, satyres et veslales
Salutl
Thus, by 1777 the full effects of Grimm's caustic wit had run their course, and the
marvelous at the Optra was as extravagant as ever.
11
Longyear, op. cit., limits his discussion of the origins of the "rescue" opera
to the repertory of the opira-comiqu*. Yet Hercules's last-minute "rescue" places
Alctitt among the predecessor!.
*• The phrase is Guiet's.
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 495

ization of terror is presented than in earlier versions of this legend;

Gluck's hand is felt on every page.
Although a decidedly lesser talent, Lemoyne seized upon the possibil-
ities that Gluck had opened up; Electee shows the Gluckian tradition at
work during the years immediately following Iphiginie en Tauride. The
furies that accompany Orestes are present as dancers, or mimes, through-
out the opera. The overture dissolves, in the same way as that to Iphi-

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gSnie en Tauride, into the first scene of the opera. Here the furies are
found, dancing before the tomb of Agamemnon while Orestes pays
homage to his father and asks for his aid in revenge. These demons are
ever present though invisible to Orestes until after he murders Clytem-
nestra. At that moment he is able to see them for the first time, and as
he rushes from the stage in full cognizance of his monstrous act, the
furies accompany him. Lemoyne even surpasses Gluck in one respect.
Whereas die ending of Iphiginie en Aulide had been altered so as to
give the story a happy ending (and Einstein rightly condemns Gluck's
ending, for how is it possible for Iphigenia to be in Tauris if she is not
spirited away from Aulis?),29 Electee is one of the first operas in the late
18th century to end tragically. While Cherubini's Med&e would appear
to be the first opera in which all acts end in a minor tonality, Lemoyne's
opera must be given its proper credit for a truly tragic conclusion, albeit
in E-flat major. The second act does conclude in C minor, but Lemoyne
compensates for ending Act III in a major key by concluding it piano.
(Act II had ended on a pianissimo.) In addition, Electee contains many
exaggerated dynamic markings, "pp <", " > pp", or pp to ff in a
measure or two, thus establishing this typical French operatic practice
some nine years before the Revolutionary "rescue" comes into its own.
Even in this one example Gluck's important legacy for following gen-
erations of composers in their approach to the marvelous can be clearly
seen.
In addition, it must be remembered that the EncyclopSdie was not
cut from one complete bolt of cloth. The articles on the spectacle, dec-
oration, dance, etc. received further treatment and elaboration in the
Supplement published in 1777. The article on le merveilleux in particular
was changed. Written by Piccinni's librettist, Marmontel, this article
showed a further expansion of all those items previously understood to
fall within the scope of the marvelous: "Le merveilleux naturel. . . great
19
Einstein, op. cit., p. 141.
496 The Musical Quarterly

changes in the nature of things, floods, earthquakes, events which have

changed the face of the globe . . . Such are [found] in the great expedi-
tions, conquests, [and] the changes of fortune . . .'>J0 This points not
not only in the direction of the famous storm passage in Gluck's over-
ture to IphigSnie en Tauride but also towards the natural catastrophes
prominent in so many operas of the French Revolutionary decade as
well as in Spontini, Rossini, Auber, etc.
Mannontel was truly "French" in being repelled by the appearances

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of supernatural deities on the legitimate stage. Neither die marvelous of
the mythological legend nor magic was considered to be "proper."" In
his Mimoxres Marmontel remarks that "there is no interest if there is
no illusion, and no illusion without some sense of probability."33 Illusions
and probability must go hand in hand although it would seem that
anything marvelous, by its very nature, cannot be probable, for how
can it then be marvelous? (But it is interesting to note that Marmontel
felt no compunctions at all over including the marvelous in the librettos
he wrote for Piccinni and Gre"try.)
With Beaumarchais's preface to Tarare, "Aux Abonne's de l'Op^ra
qui voudraient aimer l'Opera,"" 1781, the cycle begun by the Encyclo-
pedists and their reform movement is ended. Here the poet presents
his arguments for a "new" type of opera. Instead of separation, genres
are to be fused. Each opera should contain elements of both tragedy and
comedy, allegory and realism, sub-plots are to share the limelight with
the main plot, and if the scene be in an oriental court, there might be
European characters to highlight the contrasts. Although Beaumarchais
wished to relegate magic to the past in favor of a more realistic approach,
the Prologue to Tarare employs allegorical figures in the spirit of older
operas, i.e. appearances by the "Spirit of Nature" and the "Spirit of
Fire," as well as the unborn souls who are summoned from the void
and questioned before being sent to earth as human beings. Magic may
have disappeared, but the allegorical and mysterious connotations of this
Prologue must be classified as a true part of the marvelous. Indeed,
30
J. F. Marmontel, Le Mtrvcilleux, in SuppUmtnt & Encyclopidie ou Diction-
naire raisonni des Sciences . . . Paris, 1777, III, 906.
J1
See S. Lenel, Un Homme de lettres au XVIII' siicle, Marmontel, Paris, 1902,
p. 390 and passim, for a summary of Mannontel's views of the marvelous.
33
Memoires of Marmontel, transl. Brigit Patmore, London, 1903, p. 154.
M
Printed in Pierre Auguste Caron de Beaumarchais, Oeuvres computes, Paris,
1894, pp. 197-223; English transl. in Jacques Barzun, The Pleasures of Music, New
York, 1951, pp. 228-35.
 Le Merveilleux and Operatic Reform 497

Beaumarchais refers to his prologue as the "marvelous part of the poem,"

and then continues by stating that "magical wonders are excellent when
used in moderation."14
Ideologically, the preface to Tarare stands at the opposite pole from
the reforms desired by the Encyclopedists. The tradition and cult of the
marvelous had proved too powerful to be completely eliminated from the
French operatic stage. Taxare was very popular; Salieri's music does not

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rise to meet the powerful forces presented in the storm scene of the Pro-
logue, but the stage machinery must have compensated for the com-
poser's dullness. Just two years later the whole social structure that
supported French culture was to crumble, and the older operatic con-
ventions including the prevailing traditions of the marvelous were to
give way to completely new and different concepts of the role of music.
In this last tumultuous decade of the 18th century the genesis of Roman-
tic opera is to be found.

34
Bamin, ibid., 234.