Theatrical genres
- Farce
- Pastorale
- Tragi-comedy
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- Opéra-comique
- Drama
- Opéra/ Académie Royale de musique
- Ballets and court spectacles
- Italian Comedy
Organisation of performance
- In the afternoon, e.g. Marais from 2 o’clock, 3 times a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, Fridays; Petit-Bourbon, Molière’s company performed on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays.
- Streets would be very crowded around playhouses (‘traffic-jams’: cf. Regnard).
- Billboards of different colours: red = Comédie-Italienne, green = Comédie-Française, yellow =Opéra.
- The « Aboyeurs » (the barkers), at the entrance, would advertise the performance of the day and invite people in.
Audiences
- Space:
Boxes (aristocrats)
Stage (aristocrats)
Even wings. 1759: stage = empty
- During the performance: auditorium and stage were lit up by candles (no darkness)
Intervals: « chauffoirs » room where members of the audience would chat, and warm themselves up; « limonadiers » selling lemonades (refreshments)
- Selling: e.g. fans, calendars etc.
The Actor
- The actor, as a person, was treated as a pariah.
- Usually from lower classes or middle classes.
- His profession and even his ‘art’ were seen as dishonest, and often wildly and vigorously condemned.
- His position in society: marginalized.
- He had to forfeit basic rights (running the risk of seeing one’s partner disinherited upon marriage, of being ostracized)
- Excommunicated by the Church (Molière was buried under cover of darkness with local priests refusing to have anything to do with him).
Scenery
- First part of the C17: several places represented on the stage (« Décor simultané »)
- Later: « Palais à volonté » (Classicism and theatrical rules): only one set for the whole play .
- Italian influence (machines: « Tragédie à machines » such as ‘Andromède’ by Corneille)
Costumes in tragedy
- Actors: responsible for supplying their own wardrobe and choosing what they would wear for each performance
- In general costumes = lively colours (to be seen by the audience). Comedy: inspired by fashion.
- Female costume: inspired by the fashion of the Court; long, heavy dresses which hindered movement; gloves and handkerchief
Performances and acting
- Rules established by orators of antiquity such as Cicero or Quintilian
- Influenced by Court etiquette
- C17 acting was based on imitating passion and not really “feeling” it
- C18 acting: actors moved away from tradition and innovated on stage
- Too much self-consciousness and control of gestures were progressively rejected
- The violent and passionate expression of emotions became a priority on stage
Rehearsals
- ‘Mis à l’étude’ (lit. put to study)
- ‘Les rôles à la main’ (parts in hand)
- Rehearsals also ‘particulières’ (individual) or ‘petites’
- Final rehearsals ‘grandes’, ‘complètes’ or ‘générales’
- ‘10 o’clock precisely (as the starting-time for rehearsal) of 5-act plays and 11 o’clock for 3- and 1- act plays’; later in the century, 11 o’clock