Back to search

SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell

Opéra-comique: secularization, commercialization and mass-culture

Awarded: NOK 3.2 mill.

-The project focuses on the dominant cultural phenomenon of eighteenth-century French opéra-comique. The full projet name, "Opéra-comique: Secularization, commercialization and mass culture" gives a strong indication of the orientation of the project. The project seeks to understand the underlying conditions for social change provoked by music culture by studying theoretical, practical and esthetical aspects of the crucial moment of the birth and growth of opéra-comique in eighteenth-century France. Relying on radically new thoughts on the era's music and society and promoting new ways of communicating and experiencing music, opéra-comique grew into a cultural phenomenon that spread like wildfire over the whole of Europe, spanning from Russian theatre scenes to the smallest town theatres in Great Britain and Scandinavia. Opéra-comique implied hitherto new ways of commercializing artistic trade and also different ways of experiencing the works of art and music on an individual basis. Long neglected by historians, literary historians and musicologists alike, opéra-comique provides crucial material for understanding the underlying conditions change in music culture. The project will examine the role of opéra-comique in the development of a new music culture in the eighteenth century.

The project aims to understand essential aspects of music as a prerequisite for societal change by focusing on the three key concepts of secularization, commercialization and mass culture and by tracking these back to their development within the cultural evolution of the eighteenth century. The project focuses on the dominant cultural phenomenon of eighteenth-century French opéra-comique. The highly influential opéra-comique tradition was for a long time considered unworthy of academic scrutiny althoug h, in its own time, it was an immensely influential medium that spread to the entire European continent. Its impact has therefore not been taken in account in approaches to general questions of the importance of music in society, even though opéra-comique was a leading pan-European popular musical tradition that led to fundamental changes in music culture. These changes are still noteworthy because they introduced new conditions for music making and music culture, whose full potential was first realized i n the twentieth century with the invention of electronic reproduction of music. The project will examine the role of opéra-comique in the development of a new music culture in the eighteenth century through secularization, commercialization and the intr oduction of mass-culture communication (in the public space and in the private space with the invention of multimedia novels). By strengthening our understanding of the features that underlie the most recent developments that characterize music in societ y and by close collaboration with independent institutions acting in society development and governance, the project will provide knowledge for developing policies within key areas in the years to come.

Funding scheme:

SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell