Reflections on the Social Role of Eighteenth-Century Opera (Margaret)

“Opera as Social Duty,” “Expression as Imitation,” and “Tears and the New Attentiveness” from Listening in Paris by James Johnson

Margaret Wehr
4.7.09

James Johnson’s Listening in Paris explores the role of opera in eighteenth-century France, revealing that opera had a much more prevalent social function than a musical one, especially during the middle of the century. According to Johnson, audiences in this time period thought of music as “little more than an agreeable ornament to a magnificent spectacle, in which they themselves played the principal part” (James 10). He then goes on to highlight aspects of opera at the time and study the various changes in audience attitudes toward it beginning around the 1770s with the emergence of Rameau and Gluck’s operas.

In 1750, attending an opera provided a very concentrated display of social hierarchies as well as tips on current trends in fashion and taste. In direct contrast with LeGuin’s concentration on the importance of a musical conversation in “A Visit to the Salon de Parnasse,” opera-goers in the mid-eighteenth century were far more invested in their own conversations than in the opera itself, often speaking or yelling over the music or leaving to take walks outside in the middle of the performance. Listening intently to the music of the opera was seen as “bourgeois” and in poor taste. These behaviors arose from the social structure at the time and the etiquette endorsed by the members of nobility who were present, and whose opinions on the music were considered more valid than those of any other individuals in the crowd. Thus, the operas themselves were judged “by groups rather than by individuals” (James 33).

Perhaps most interesting about audience attitudes toward music at the time is the weight of the text and word painting involved in public opinion of a work. “To them, music presented a clear picture in a one-to-one correspondence of tone to image or it had on expression at all” (James 36). This put an excessive amount of importance on musical imitation of real life sounds as opposed to musical evocation of human emotion, which was not thought possible at the time. Therefore, the recitatives and airs automatically assumed the focus of the opera, and the opera’s popularity among audiences directly correlated with the ability of audience members to hear certain things in the music.

Then came Rameau, who used unexpected chromaticism, polyphony, and modulations to convey emotion separate from the text, causing a bit of an uproar. However, public opinion on this subject had begun to change by the 1770s with an increasing interest in artistic and expressive elements, not just the spectacle for its own sake.

What elements of late-eighteenth century society contributed to this major shift in thinking about and experiencing music?

What would Rousseau have to say about the idea of a musical conversation, were he to attend the Salon de Parnasse? How would a musical conversation change if it were thought incapable of portraying emotion?