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Cette étude porte sur un corpus de tarentelles pour piano éditées en France de la fin des années 1820 jusqu’à la Première Guerre mondiale. Cherchant à comprendre comment cette danse, originaire du sud de l’Italie, en est venue à occuper une telle place dans le répertoire pianistique français du XIXe siècle, l’auteur commence par évoquer ses origines présumées, entre catharsis et rituel de guérison, puis son évolution en une danse de divertissement. Après une première partie consacrée à la façon dont les récits de voyageurs, les romans et les articles de presse contribuent à entretenir un imaginaire pittoresque autour de la tarentelle, la deuxième partie aborde la question de son acclimatation dans la France du siècle romantique. On y apprend notamment que la tarentelle de La Muette de Portici d’Auber a servi de modèle aux tarentelles qui figurent dans de nombreux opéras de l’époque. Avec La Danza de Rossini, la Tarentelle d’Auber a même lancé la mode des pièces s’inspirant du rythme et de la vivacité caractéristiques de cette danse. La troisième partie apporte enfin un éclairage particulier sur les 496 partitions pour piano du corpus, celles-ci étant examinées sous l’angle de leurs couvertures illustrées, de leurs titres évocateurs, mais aussi de la gestion qu’elles font de certains paramètres musicaux (rythme, tonalité, tempo, etc.). Englobant un répertoire qui va des pièces faciles pour le salon aux œuvres les plus virtuoses pour le concert, la tarentelle a séduit le public français par sa puissance d’évocation transalpine et l’énergie de son rythme tourbillonnant. / This study relies on a corpus of tarantellas for piano, which were released in France from the end of the 1820s until World War I. From the starting point of the supposed origins of this dance – between catharsis, healing rituals, and then its mutation into an entertaining dance – the author reaches an understanding of how a dance, which actually originated in Southern Italy has come to occupy a significant place in the French pianistic literature of the 19th century. After a first section devoted to the way travellers’ tales, novels and press releases contributed to foster picturesque imagination surrounding the tarantellas, the second section deals with the issue of its adaptation to the French Romantic century criteria. One learns, among others, that the tarantella from La Muette de Portici by Auber provided a model for subsequent tarantellas, which featured in numerous operatic works of that time. Along with Rossini’s La Danza, Auber’s Tarantella initiated an authentic trend for pieces, which were taking inspiration from lively components so characteristic of this dance. Eventually, the third section brings a particular emphasis on the 496 piano pieces of the author’s corpus. This section analyses them in the light of their illustrated cover pages, evocative titles, and also the way several musical parameters such as rhythm, tonality, tempo, etc. are treated. With a repertoire encompassing easy pieces intended to parlour attendees to more virtuosic concert works, the tarantella seduced the French audiences through its transalpine evocative power and the energy of its whirling rhythm.

Abbé Prévost’s novel L’Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731) has inspired at least four operas, notably by Daniel Auber, Jules Massenet, Giacomo Puccini, and Hans Werner Henze. This study will look at the three nineteenth-century operas based on that novel: Auber’s Manon Lescaut (1856), Massenet’s Manon (1884), and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (1893). Massenet’s treatment receives the most attention because it is the most popular, and arguably the most well-known, of the three operas. I will discuss Manon’s role in the novel and operas, and its impact on the dramatic conception of each work. In the three operas I will examine her arias and other music, and her relationships with other characters. The goal is to gain a better understanding of each composer’s interpretation of Prévost’s heroine and to explore why Manon is different in each work.

The notion of 'race' was central to the thinking about and administration of Aboriginal affairs in the 1930s, but its meaning was fluid. In many respects Auber Octavius Neville, senior bureaucrat in Western Australia from 1915-1940 and a national figure in Aboriginal affairs during that period, was emblematic of the race thinking of the period. This study looks at the Western Australian Moseley Royal Commission of 1934, the Western Australian Parliamentary debates and legislation of 1929 and 1936, the Canberra Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Authorities in 1937, and Neville's 1947 book, Australia's Coloured Minority - for their exemplification of race thinking. Basic incompatibilities and inconsistencies, as evidenced in Neville's thinking and action across his career, were common in the period. Neville's central administrative desire was to force biological absorption to its ultimate conclusion - the 'Destiny' of Aborigines of the part descent was to be absorbed biologically into the white community. He used scientific support to 'prove' the 'safety' of this strategy. The central premise of Neville's race thinking, however, was that some form of racial essentialism would always negatively impact upon the 'absorption' of Aborigines into white Australia. Other major figures differed with Neville over the suitability of absorption, notably Queensland Chief Protector, J. W. Bleakley, but still believed in some essential 'Aboriginal-ness'. The thesis also traces Neville's attempts to dominate Aboriginal affairs both in the construction of the 'problem' and in proclaiming solutions. Neville was absolutely certain that his solution was the only way forward. This certainty, when added to the inconsistent notions of race that informed his conceptualisation of the 'problem', produced policies and practices of insurmountable internal contradictions that have profoundly affected generations of Aborigines.

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In the 1830s the opera-comique genre evolves from the simple "comedies melee d'ariettes" to a true operatic form with musico-dramatic significance. One primary area of development is found in the placement and dramatic function of solo forms which begin to play a markedly different role than they had in operas comiques of earlier periods. Despite the evidence suggesting significant musico-dramatic development, few scholars have attempted to identify the practices governing the placement and function of musical soli in the operas comiques of the 1830s. For this reason we have undertaken a detailed study of these elements in three libretti: Fra Diavolo (1830), Zampa (1831) and Le Pre aux Clercs (1832). In a preliminary examination, these libretti were found to exhibit traits representative of many works of the period. Our research has led us to conclude that solo forms are employed in one or more of the following four dramatic situations: (1) to convey background information to the plot or to characters, or to reveal pre-curtain events; (2) to paint a character's true personality; (3) to expose a character's emotional state of mind or train of thought at a given moment; and (4) to distribute the number of soli through the opera in a manner that reflects a character's importance in the drama. Although such uses of solo forms are not unique to the 1830s, the extent to which they were employed represents a significant departure from earlier practice. This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter--by way of introduction--contrasts the roles of musical numbers in 1830s operas comiques with those of their predecessors. It also discusses the literary and musical conventions of the works of this period. The second chapter first presents a synopsis of Scribe's and Auber's opera comique Frat Diavolo, and a view of the well made play elements as displayed in the libretto, before focusing on a discussion of the placement of musical soli in the drama. Similarly, chapters three and four discuss Melesvilie's and Herold's Zampa, ou la Fiancee de marbre and Planard's and Herold's Le Pre aux Clercs respectively. The final chapter outlines the practices observed in the placement and dramatic function of soli in the three selected operas and relates the significance of these practices to the genre's development. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

Cette étude de la diffusion du comique en Europe, à travers les productions d’opere buffe, d’opéras-comiques et de komische Opern dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle, porte dans un premier temps sur les livrets et leur circulation, puis sur la diffusion des œuvres, enfin sur les modèles structurels musicaux du comique et leurs transferts. Entré le premier dans l’ère de la « littérature industrielle », le théâtre français s’impose à l’échelle du continent et les librettistes français bénéficient du système avantageux du droit d’auteur. Déconsidérés et mal rémunérés, les librettistes italiens et allemands traduisent et adaptent en grande quantité des pièces françaises. Tandis que l’opera buffa connaît une incroyable diffusion en France et en Allemagne entre 1800 et 1850, aussi bien en langue originale qu’en traduction, et que l’opéra-comique suit son exemple en Allemagne en traduction, la komische Oper est rarement jouée en France, et les genres français et allemand restent inconnus en Italie. Les modèles structurels du comique italien, dont les opere buffe de Rossini constituent la plus célèbre expression, sont repris par les compositeurs français et allemands dans leurs propres ouvrages. Les compositeurs allemands empruntent également aux modèles structurels du comique français, si bien que le genre de la komische Oper consiste principalement en une synthèse franco-italienne. Dans une période caractérisée par l’essor des nationalismes, la circulation des œuvres, des librettistes et des compositeurs favorise paradoxalement la construction d’une unité de l’Europe par le rire. / This study of the diffusion of comic in Europe, through the productions of opere buffe, opéras-comiques and komische Opern during the first half of the 19th century, firstly examines the libretti and their circulation, then the diffusion of comic operas, and lastly the musical structural models of comic and their transfers. The French theatre inaugurates the age of « industrial literature » imposing itself on the whole continent, and the French librettists benefit from the profitable system of royalties. Discredited and badly payed, the Italian and German librettists translate and adapt a great number of French plays. While the opera buffa enjoys an incredible diffusion in France and in Germany between 1800 and 1850, as well in the original language as in translation, and while the opéra-comique follows suit in Germany (but always in translation), the komische Oper is rarely played in France, and the French and German genres remain unknown in Italy. The structural models of Italian comic, of which Rossini’s opere buffe are the most famous expression, are taken up by French and German composers in their own works. The German composers also borrow from the structural models of French comic, so much so that the genre of the komische Oper ends up consisting principally of a synthesis of French and Italian elements. During a period characterised by the rise of nationalisms, the circulation of the works, the librettists and the composers paradoxically favours the construction of a European unity through laughter.