To the Question of the Use of the Term "Grand Opéra" at French Editions of 19th Century
This article considers features of existence of the term “grand opera” at French editions of the 19th century. It is accepted to consider now that “Muette de Portici” of D.-F.-E. Auber and E. Scribe (1828) is frst French opera, deserving the name “grand opera”. This term, however, existed itself long before appearance of this composition and used on a relation to various works, for example, to “ballet heroïque ‘Aline, reine de Golconde’” in three acts by P. Monsigny (1766) or to opera “Zimeo” in three acts by J.-P.-É. Martini (represented as opera-dialogue at 1800). At the beginning of the century “grand opera” was the name for a theatre production premiered on the stage of Academie Royale de musique foremost. After competition for “prix decennaux”, declared of Napoleon I in 1804 and coming to an end in 1810, “tragedies lyrique” began to be considered like “grand operas” - tragedies, devoted to the episodes of biographies of “Gods, tsars and heroes” and, as a rule, containing three acts. On the border of 1820-1830s the term was enriched by new interpretations in connection with staging a number of operas in fve acts. “Muette de Portici” just became the frst from them. It was written on a popular plot, in which authors added the unconventional types of main characters. Critical responses of 1830s are devoted to the statement of genre “grand opera en cinq actes” as work, for that not every plots and expressive facilities are suitable, and therefore to write in this genre extraordinarily diffcult. Four decades from 1828 to the end of 1860s became the epoch of bloom of “français grand opera”. After a fre in the theatre of Academie Imperial de musique (1873) and moving of presentations in a Palais Garnier (1875) “grand operas” went back to the features of the “tragedies lyrique” and “dramas lyrique”. In compositions of the last quarter of the century, in opinion of criticism, prevailed grace and elegance; power and passion, however, once being basic characteristics of “grand opera” style, were absent.