Editing Opera (section)

===French opera===
{{Main|French opera}}
[[File:Armide Lully by Saint-Aubin.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36|left|A performance of Lully's opera ''[[Armide (Lully)|Armide]]'' in the [[Salle du Palais-Royal]] in 1761]]
{{listen|type=music
|filename=Pasquale_Amato,_Georges_Bizet,_Chanson_du_toréador,_Carmen.ogg
|title=''Carmen'': Chanson du toréador
|description=[[Pasquale Amato]]'s 1911 rendition of the Toréador's song from [[Georges Bizet]]'s ''[[Carmen]]'' (1875).
}}
In rivalry with imported Italian opera productions, a separate French tradition was founded by the Italian-born French composer [[Jean-Baptiste Lully]] at the court of [[Louis XIV|King Louis XIV]]. Despite his foreign birthplace, Lully established an [[Académie Royale de Musique|Academy of Music]] and monopolised French opera from 1672. Starting with ''[[Cadmus et Hermione]]'', Lully and his librettist [[Philippe Quinault|Quinault]] created ''[[tragédie en musique]]'', a form in which dance music and choral writing were particularly prominent. Lully's operas also show a concern for expressive [[recitative]] which matched the contours of the French language. In the 18th century, Lully's most important successor was [[Jean-Philippe Rameau]], who composed five ''tragédies en musique'' as well as numerous works in other genres such as ''[[opéra-ballet]]'', all notable for their rich orchestration and harmonic daring. Despite the popularity of Italian [[opera seria]] throughout much of Europe during the Baroque period, Italian opera never gained much of a foothold in France, where its own national operatic tradition was more popular instead.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofop0004grou|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofop0004grou/page/133 133]|title=A Short History of Opera|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-11958-0|access-date=11 April 2014|last1=Grout|first1=Donald Jay|author-link1=Donald Jay Grout|last2=Williams|first2=Hermine Weigel|year=2003}}</ref> After Rameau's death, the Bohemian-Austrian composer [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]] was persuaded to produce six operas for the Parisian stage in the 1770s.<ref>{{cite Grove|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O007318 |date=2022 |title=Gluck, Christoph Willibald Ritter von|first1=Jeremy |last1=Hayes |first2=Bruce Alan |last2=Brown |first3=Max |last3=Loppert |first4=Winton |last4=Dean}}</ref> They show the influence of Rameau, but simplified and with greater focus on the drama. At the same time, by the middle of the 18th century another genre was gaining popularity in France: ''[[opéra comique]]''. This was the equivalent of the German [[singspiel]], where arias alternated with spoken dialogue. Notable examples in this style were produced by [[Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny|Monsigny]], [[François-André Danican Philidor|Philidor]] and, above all, [[André Grétry|Grétry]]. During the [[French Revolution|Revolutionary]] and [[Napoleonic Wars|Napoleonic]] period, composers such as [[Étienne Méhul]], [[Luigi Cherubini]] and [[Gaspare Spontini]], who were followers of Gluck, brought a new seriousness to the genre, which had never been wholly "comic" in any case. Another phenomenon of this period was the 'propaganda opera' celebrating revolutionary successes, e.g. [[François-Joseph Gossec|Gossec's]] ''Le triomphe de la République'' (1793).
[[File:Salzburger Festspiele 2012 - Carmen.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Magdalena Kožená]] and [[Jonas Kaufmann]] in a scene from ''[[Carmen]]'', [[Salzburg Festival]] 2012]]

By the 1820s, Gluckian influence in France had given way to a taste for Italian [[bel canto]], especially after the arrival of [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]] in [[Paris]]. Rossini's ''[[Guillaume Tell]]'' helped found the new genre of [[grand opera]], a form whose most famous exponent was another foreigner, [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]]. Meyerbeer's works, such as ''[[Les Huguenots]]'', emphasised virtuoso singing and extraordinary stage effects. Lighter ''opéra comique'' also enjoyed tremendous success in the hands of [[Boïeldieu]], [[Daniel Auber|Auber]], [[Ferdinand Hérold|Hérold]] and [[Adolphe Adam|Adam]]. In this climate, the operas of the French-born composer [[Hector Berlioz]] struggled to gain a hearing. Berlioz's epic masterpiece ''[[Les Troyens]]'', the culmination of the Gluckian tradition, was not given a full performance for almost a hundred years.

In the second half of the 19th century, [[Jacques Offenbach]] created [[operetta]] with witty and cynical works such as ''[[Orphée aux enfers]]'', as well as the opera ''[[Les Contes d'Hoffmann]]''; [[Charles Gounod]] scored a massive success with ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]''; and [[Georges Bizet]] composed ''[[Carmen]]'', which, once audiences learned to accept its blend of [[Romanticism]] and realism, became the most popular of all opéra comiques. [[Jules Massenet]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] and [[Léo Delibes]] all composed works which are still part of the standard repertory, examples being Massenet's ''[[Manon]]'', Saint-Saëns' ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson et Dalila]]'' and Delibes' ''[[Lakmé]]''. Their operas formed another genre, the {{lang|fr|opéra lyrique}}, combined {{lang|fr|opéra comique}} and grand opera. It is less grandiose than grand opera, but without the spoken dialogue of {{lang|fr|opèra comique}}. At the same time, the influence of [[Richard Wagner]] was felt as a challenge to the French tradition. Many French critics angrily rejected Wagner's music dramas while many French composers closely imitated them with variable success. Perhaps the most interesting response came from [[Claude Debussy]]. As in Wagner's works, the orchestra plays a leading role in Debussy's unique opera ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1902) and there are no real arias, only recitative. But the drama is understated, enigmatic and completely un-Wagnerian.

Other notable 20th-century names include [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]], [[Paul Dukas|Dukas]], [[Albert Roussel|Roussel]], [[Arthur Honegger|Honegger]] and [[Darius Milhaud|Milhaud]]. [[Francis Poulenc]] is one of the very few post-war composers of any nationality whose operas (which include ''[[Dialogues of the Carmelites|Dialogues des Carmélites]]'') have gained a foothold in the international repertory. [[Olivier Messiaen]]'s lengthy sacred drama ''[[Saint François d'Assise]]'' (1983) has also attracted widespread attention.<ref>General outline for this section from {{harvnb|Parker|1994|loc=chapters 1–4, 8 and 9}}; and ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' (10th ed., 1968); more specific references from the individual composer entries in ''The Viking Opera Guide''.</ref>