Comédie en vaudevilles

Evolution#

The annual fairs of Paris at St. Germain and St. Laurent had developed theatrical variety entertainments, with mixed plays, acrobatic displays, and pantomimes, typically featuring vaudevilles (see Théâtre de la foire). Gradually these features began to invade established theatres. The Querelle des Bouffons (War of the Clowns), a dispute amongst theatrical factions in Paris in the 1750s, in part reflects the rivalry of this form, as it evolved into opéra comique, with the Italian opera buffa. Comédie en vaudevilles also seems to have influenced the English ballad opera and the German Singspiel.

Vaudeville final#

One feature of the comédie en vaudevilles which later found its way into opera was the vaudeville final, a strophic finale in which the characters assemble at the end of the piece with each singing a short verse, often ending with a refrain which everyone would sing, and a final verse with the entire ensemble joining in. Typically the first verse provides the moral of the story, while the intervening verses comment on particular events in the plot, and the final verse appeals directly to audience for its indulgence. Sometimes the verses were also interspersed with dances. and Don Giovanni (1788), as well as later works, such as Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816), Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury (1875), Verdi’s Falstaff (1893), Ravel’s L’heure espagnole (1911) and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (1951).

Sources#

• Barnes, Clifford, “Vaudeville” in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2001.
• “Vaudeville” in The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 1992. .
• M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet, “Vaudeville final” in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 1992. . Also at Oxford Music Online (subscription required).