Lyrical tragedy. Lyrical tragedy Founder of lyrical tragedy

There were not many musicians as truly French as this Italian; he alone in France maintained his popularity for a whole century.
R. Rolland

J. B. Lully is one of the largest opera composers of the 17th century, the founder of French musical theater. Lully entered the history of national opera both as the creator of a new genre - lyrical tragedy (as the great mythological opera was called in France), and as an outstanding theatrical figure - it was under his leadership that the Royal Academy of Music became the first and main opera house in France, which later gained worldwide fame called Grand Opera.

Lully was born into a miller's family. The teenager's musical abilities and acting temperament attracted the attention of the Duke of Guise, who c. 1646 took Lully to Paris, assigning him to serve the Princess of Montpensier (sister of King Louis XIV). Having not received a musical education in his homeland, and by the age of 14 he could only sing and play the guitar, Lully studied composition, singing in Paris, and took lessons in playing the harpsichord and his especially beloved violin. The young Italian, who achieved the favor of Louis XIV, made a brilliant career at his court. A talented virtuoso, about whom contemporaries said - “to play the violin like Baptiste”, he soon entered the famous orchestra “24 Violins of the King”, ca. 1656 organized and led his own small orchestra “16 Violins of the King”. In 1653, Lully received the position of “court composer of instrumental music”, from 1662 he was already the superintendent of court music, and 10 years later he was the owner of a patent for the right to found the Royal Academy of Music in Paris “with lifelong use of this right and its transfer by inheritance to whichever of his sons succeeds him as Superintendent of the King's Music." In 1681, Louis XIV awarded his favorite with letters of nobility and the title of royal advisor-secretary. Having died in Paris, Lully retained his position as the absolute ruler of the musical life of the French capital until the end of his days.

Lully's creativity developed mainly in those genres and forms that were developed and cultivated at the court of the “Sun King”. Before turning to opera, Lully, in the first decades of his service (1650-60), composed instrumental music (suites and divertimentos for string instruments, individual plays and marches for wind instruments, etc.), spiritual works, and music for ballet performances (“Sick Cupid”, “Alsidiana”, “Ballet of Ridicule”, etc.). Constantly participating in court ballets as a composer, director, actor and dancer, Lully mastered the traditions of French dance, its rhythmic intonation and stage features. Collaboration with J. B. Moliere helped the composer enter the world of French theater, feel the national originality of stage speech, acting, directing, etc. Lully writes music for Moliere’s plays (“A Reluctant Marriage,” “The Princess of Elis,” “The Sicilian” , “Love the Healer”, etc.), plays the roles of Poursonnac in the comedy “Monsieur de Poursonnac” and Mufti in “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”. For a long time he remained an opponent of opera, believing that the French language was unsuitable for this genre, Lully in the early 1670s. radically changed my views. During the period 1672-86. He staged 13 lyrical tragedies at the Royal Academy of Music (including Cadmus and Hermione, Alceste, Theseus, Atys, Armida, Acis and Galatea). It was these works that laid the foundations of French musical theater and determined the type of national opera that dominated France for several decades. “Lully created a national French opera, in which both text and music are combined with national means of expression and tastes and which reflects both the shortcomings and the advantages of French art,” writes German researcher G. Kretschmer.

Lully's style of lyrical tragedy was formed in close connection with the traditions of the French theater of the classical era. The type of large five-act composition with a prologue, the manner of recitation and stage acting, plot sources (ancient Greek mythology, the history of Ancient Rome), ideas and moral problems (conflict between feelings and reason, passion and duty) bring Lully’s operas closer to the tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine . No less important is the connection between lyrical tragedy and the traditions of national ballet - large divertissements (dance numbers not related to the plot), solemn processions, processions, festivals, magical scenes, pastoral scenes enhanced the decorative and spectacular qualities of the opera performance. The tradition of introducing ballet that arose during Lully’s time turned out to be extremely stable and was preserved in French opera for several centuries. Lully's influence was felt in the orchestral suites of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. (G. Muffat, I. Fuchs, G. Telemann, etc.). Composed in the spirit of Lully's ballet divertissements, they included French dances and character pieces. Widespread in opera and instrumental music of the 18th century. received a special type of overture, which developed in the lyrical tragedy of Lully (the so-called “French” overture, consisting of a slow, solemn introduction and an energetic, moving main section).

In the second half of the 18th century. the lyrical tragedy of Lully and his followers (M. Charpentier, A. Campra, A. Detouches), and with it the entire style of court opera, becomes the object of heated discussions, parodies, and ridicule (“the war of the buffons,” “the war of the Gluckists and Piccinnists”) . The art that arose during the heyday of absolutism was perceived by the contemporaries of Diderot and Rousseau as dilapidated, lifeless, pompous and pompous. At the same time, Lully’s work, which played a certain role in the formation of a great heroic style in opera, attracted the attention of opera composers (J. F. Rameau, G. F. Handel, K. V. Gluck), who gravitated towards monumentality, pathos, strictly rational, orderly organization of the whole.

Jean-Baptiste LULLY in his operas called “tragedie mise en musique” (literally “tragedy set to music”, “tragedy on music”; in Russian musicology the less precise but more euphonious term “lyrical tragedy” is often used), Lully sought to enhance dramatic effects with music and give fidelity to the declamation and dramatic significance to the chorus. Thanks to the brilliance of the production, the effectiveness of the ballet, the merits of the libretto and the music itself, Lully's operas enjoyed great fame in France and Europe and lasted on the stage for about 100 years, influencing the further development of the genre. Under Lully, opera singers began to perform without masks for the first time, women began to dance in ballet on a public stage; trumpets and oboes were introduced into the orchestra for the first time in history, and the overture, unlike the Italian one (allegro, adagio, allegro), took the form grave, allegro, grave. In addition to lyrical tragedies, Lully penned a large number of ballets (ballets de cour), symphonies, trios, violin arias, divertiments, overtures and motets.

There were not many musicians as truly French as this Italian; he alone in France maintained his popularity for a whole century.
R. Rolland

Lully was born into a miller's family. The teenager's musical abilities and acting temperament attracted the attention of the Duke of Guise, who c. 1646 took Lully to Paris, assigning him to serve the Princess of Montpensier (sister of King Louis XIV). Having not received a musical education in his homeland, and by the age of 14 he could only sing and play the guitar, Lully studied composition, singing in Paris, and took lessons in playing the harpsichord and his especially beloved violin. The young Italian, who achieved the favor of Louis XIV, made a brilliant career at his court. A talented virtuoso, about whom contemporaries said - “to play the violin like Baptiste”, he soon entered the famous orchestra “24 Violins of the King”, ca. 1656 organized and led his own small orchestra “16 Violins of the King”. In 1653, Lully received the position of "court composer of instrumental music", from 1662 he was already the superintendent of court music, and 10 years later - the owner of a patent for the right to found the Royal Academy of Music in Paris "with lifelong use of this right and its transfer by inheritance to whichever of his sons succeeds him as Superintendent of the King's Music." In 1681, Louis XIV awarded his favorite with letters of nobility and the title of royal advisor-secretary. Having died in Paris, Lully retained his position as the absolute ruler of the musical life of the French capital until the end of his days.

Lully's creativity developed mainly in those genres and forms that were developed and cultivated at the court of the “Sun King”. Before turning to opera, Lully, in the first decades of his service (1650-60), composed instrumental music (suites and divertimentos for string instruments, individual plays and marches for wind instruments, etc.), spiritual works, and music for ballet performances (“Sick Cupid”, “Alsidiana”, “Ballet of Ridicule”, etc.). Constantly participating in court ballets as a composer, director, actor and dancer, Lully mastered the traditions of French dance, its rhythmic intonation and stage features. Collaboration with J. B. Moliere helped the composer enter the world of French theater, feel the national originality of stage speech, acting, directing, etc. Lully writes music for Moliere's plays ("A Reluctant Marriage", "The Princess of Elis", "The Sicilian" , “Love the Healer”, etc.), plays the roles of Poursonnac in the comedy “Monsieur de Poursonnac” and Mufti in “The Bourgeois in the Nobility”. For a long time he remained an opponent of opera, believing that the French language was unsuitable for this genre, Lully in the early 1670s. radically changed my views. During the period 1672-86. He staged 13 lyrical tragedies at the Royal Academy of Music (including Cadmus and Hermione, Alceste, Theseus, Atis, Armida, Acis and Galatea). It was these works that laid the foundations of French musical theater and determined the type of national opera that dominated France for several decades. “Lully created a national French opera, in which both text and music are combined with national means of expression and tastes and which reflects both the shortcomings and the advantages of French art,” writes German researcher G. Kretschmer.

Lully's style of lyrical tragedy was formed in close connection with the traditions of the French theater of the classical era. The type of large five-act composition with a prologue, the manner of recitation and stage acting, plot sources (ancient Greek mythology, the history of Ancient Rome), ideas and moral problems (conflict between feelings and reason, passion and duty) bring Lully’s operas closer to the tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine . No less important is the connection between lyrical tragedy and the traditions of national ballet - large divertissements (dance numbers not related to the plot), solemn processions, processions, festivals, magical scenes, pastoral scenes enhanced the decorative and spectacular qualities of the opera performance. The tradition of introducing ballet that arose during Lully’s time turned out to be extremely stable and was preserved in French opera for several centuries. Lully's influence was felt in the orchestral suites of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. (G. Muffat, I. Fuchs, G. Telemann, etc.). Composed in the spirit of Lully's ballet divertissements, they included French dances and character pieces. Widespread in opera and instrumental music of the 18th century. received a special type of overture, which developed in Lully’s lyrical tragedy (the so-called “French” overture, consisting of a slow, solemn introduction and an energetic, moving main section).

A native of Italy, who was destined to glorify French music - such was the fate of Jean-Baptiste Lully. The founder of French lyrical tragedy, he played a key role in the formation of the Royal Academy of Music - the future Grand Opera House.

Giovanni Battista Lulli (this is what the future composer was called at birth) is a native of Florence. His father was a miller, but his origins did not prevent the boy from becoming interested in art. In his childhood, he showed versatile abilities - he danced and acted out comic skits. A certain Franciscan monk mentored him in the art of music, and Giovanni Batista learned to play the guitar and violin perfectly. Luck smiled at him at the age of fourteen: the Duke of Guise drew attention to the talented young musician and took him into his retinue. In France, the musician, now called in the French manner - Jean-Baptiste Lully - became the page of the Princess de Montpensier, the king's sister. His duties included helping her practice Italian and entertaining her by playing musical instruments. At the same time, Lully filled the gaps in musical education - he took singing and composition lessons, mastered the harpsichord, and improved his playing of the violin.

The next stage of his career was work in the “Twenty-Four Violins of the King” orchestra. But Lully conquered his contemporaries not only by playing the violin, he also danced beautifully - so much so that in 1653 the young king wanted Lully to perform with him in the ballet “Night”, staged at court. The acquaintance with the monarch, which took place under such circumstances, allowed him to enlist the support of the king.

Lully was appointed to the position of court composer of instrumental music. His responsibility in this capacity was to create music for ballets that were staged at court. As we have already seen with the example of “Night”, the king himself performed in these productions, and the courtiers did not lag behind His Majesty. Lully himself also danced in performances. The ballets of that era were different from modern ones - along with dancing, they included singing. Initially, Lully was involved only in the instrumental part, but over time he became responsible for the vocal component. He created many ballets - “The Seasons”, “Flora”, “Fine Arts”, “Country Wedding” and others.

At the time when Lully created his ballets, the career of Jean-Baptiste Moliere was developing very successfully. Having made his debut in the French capital in 1658, after five years the playwright was awarded a substantial pension from the king; moreover, the monarch ordered him a play in which he himself could perform as a dancer. This is how the ballet comedy “Reluctant Marriage” was born, ridiculing scholarship and philosophy (the elderly protagonist intends to marry a young girl, but, doubting his decision, turns to educated people for advice - however, none of them can give an intelligible answer to his question ). The music was written by Lully, and Pierre Beauchamp worked on the production along with Moliere and Lully himself. Beginning with “A Reluctant Marriage,” the collaboration with Moliere turned out to be very fruitful: “Georges Dandin,” “The Princess of Elis” and other comedies were created. The most famous joint creation of the playwright and composer was the comedy “The Bourgeois in the Nobility.”

Being Italian by birth, Lully was skeptical about the idea of creating a French opera - in his opinion, the French language was not suitable for this native Italian genre. But when the first French opera, Robert Cambert's Pomona, was staged, the king himself approved it, which forced Lully to pay attention to this genre. True, the works that he created were called not operas, but lyrical tragedies, and the first in their series was the tragedy “Cadmus and Hermione,” written on a libretto by Philip Kino. Subsequently, Theseus, Atys, Bellerophon, Phaethon and others were written. Lully's lyrical tragedies consisted of five acts, each of which opened with an extended aria of one of the main characters, and in the further development of the action, recitative scenes alternated with short arias. Lully attached great importance to recitatives, and when creating them, he was guided by the style of declamation inherent in the tragic actors of that time (in particular, the famous actress Marie Chammele). Each act ended with a divertimento and a choral scene. French lyrical tragedy, at the origins of which Lully stood, differed from Italian opera - dancing played no less important role in it than singing. The overtures also differed from the Italian models; they were built according to the “slow-fast-slow” principle. The singers in these performances performed without masks, and another innovation was the introduction of oboes and trumpets into the orchestra.

Lully's creativity is not limited to operas and ballets - he created trios, instrumental arias and other works, including spiritual ones. One of them – Te Deum – played a fatal role in the composer’s fate: while directing its performance, Lully accidentally injured his leg with a trampoline (a cane used to beat rhythm at that time), and the wound caused a fatal illness. The composer died in 1687, before he could complete his last tragedy, Achilles and Polyxena (finished by Pascal Collas, a student of Lully).

Lully's operas enjoyed success until the mid-18th century. Later they disappeared from the scene, but interest in them was revived in the 21st century.

The phrase “tragédie lyrique” itself would be more correctly translated into Russian as “musical tragedy”, which better conveys the meaning that the French of the 17th-18th centuries put into it. But since the term “lyrical tragedy” has become established in Russian musicological literature, it is also used in this work.

The production of “Cadmus and Hermione” by Lully in 1673 definitely announced the birth of a second national opera school - the French one, which spun off from the hitherto only Italian one. It was the first example of lyrical tragedy, a genre that became fundamental to French opera. Before this, there had been occasional productions of six or seven Italian operas at the French court, but even such a talented author as Cavalli did not really convince the French public. To please her tastes, Cavalli's scores were supplemented with ballet music composed by Jean Baptiste Lully, a Florentine commoner who had a meteoric career at the court of Louis XIV. Despite his skepticism towards the attempts of Cambert and Perrin to create a French opera, a decade later Lully himself began to implement this idea, in which he was very successful.

He created his operas in collaboration with Philippe Kino, whose tragedies enjoyed success with the Parisian public for some time. Their joint works came under the special patronage of Louis XIV, largely thanks to the solemn allegorical prologue glorifying the monarch (this was absent in the classicist tragedy). Of course, this could not help but impress the “Sun King”. Gradually, the lyrical tragedy of Lully-Kino ousted Rassin’s tragedy from the royal stage, and Lully himself, skillfully catering to the whims of the monarch, received from him almost absolute power within the “Royal Academy of Music”, to which his literary co-author was also subordinate.

The Clever Florentine captured the main reason for the failure of Italian operas. No amount of musical merit could reconcile the French public, brought up on classicist tragedy, with their “incomprehensibility” - not only a foreign language, but, most importantly, with the baroque complexity of the plot and the absence of a “reasonable” beginning in the spirit of classicism. Realizing this, Lully decided to make his opera a drama based on the chanted theatrical declamation of Rassin’s theater, with its “exaggeratedly broad lines in both voice and gestures.” It is known that Lully diligently studied the manner of recitation of outstanding actors of his time, and, having drawn important intonation features from this source, he reformatively updated the structure of Italian recitative. He aptly combined the conventional elation of style with rational restraint of expression, thus pleasing “both the court and the city.” Two main types of solo vocal numbers were flexibly combined with this recitative: small melodic and declamatory airs, as generalizations during the recitative scenes, and graceful airs of a song and dance type, which were in close contact with modern everyday genres, which contributed to their wide popularity.

But in contrast to the staged asceticism of the classicist drama, Lully gave his lyrical tragedy the appearance of a spectacular, magnificent spectacle, replete with dances, processions, choirs, luxurious costumes and scenery, and “wonderful” machinery. It was these baroque effects in Italian operas that aroused the admiration of the French audience, which Lully took well into account. Also a very important spectacular component of lyrical tragedy was ballet, which was very well developed at the court of Louis XIV.

If in Italian opera the tendency to concentrate musical expression in solo arias and weaken the role of choral, instrumental and ballet numbers gradually triumphed, then in French opera the emphasis was placed on the verbal expression of dramatic action. Contrary to its name, the lyrical tragedy XVII did not give the actual musical expression of the images. All the more understandable is the furor created by the production of Hippolytus and Arisia, in which, according to Andre Campra, “there is enough music for ten operas.”

In any case, the combination of the classicist harmonious order of the whole, lush baroque effects, Kino’s heroic and gallant libretti and new musical solutions greatly impressed Lully’s contemporaries, and his opera formed a long and powerful tradition.

However, almost half a century passed between the premieres of the last lyrical tragedy and the true masterpiece of Lully-Cinema “Armide” and “Hippolyte and Arisia” by Rameau. After Lully's death, no worthy successor was found for him, and the genre of lyrical tragedy suffered an unenviable fate. The strict discipline established by the composer at the Opera soon became greatly weakened, and, as a result, the overall level of performance decreased significantly. Although many composers tried their hand at this genre, since it was the one that paid the highest fees, only a few productions had lasting success. Feeling their inadequacy in lyrical tragedy, the best creative forces turned to opera-ballet, a new genre with lighter drama and a preponderance of the gallant love component over everything else.

From this we can conclude that, given the general decline of lyrical tragedy, Rameau was not afraid to make his debut in this genre in the fall of 1733 and went “against the tide,” nevertheless winning a remarkable victory.

The genre of French lyrical tragedy is currently known only to a relatively narrow circle of specialists. Meanwhile, works written in this genre were widely known in their time; We should not forget how powerfully the lyrical tragedy had an impact on the subsequent development of musical art. Without understanding its historical role, a full understanding of many phenomena of musical theater is impossible. The purpose of this work is to show the typological features of this genre in the semantic aspect. The semantics of the genre will be considered in connection with the cultural context of France in the 17th-18th centuries. - the time of origin and development of lyrical tragedy.

First of all, let us recall that lyrical tragedy is directed towards mythological material. However, the myth served as the plot basis of the opera at the very beginning of its development. And in this, the creators of lyrical tragedy and Italian opera of the 17th century are united by the desire to create, through the means of musical theater, a kind of fantastic world that rises above everyday reality. If we talk directly about lyrical tragedy, then it turns out to be characterized by a specific interpretation myth. Mythological subjects and images are interpreted in symbolic plan - for example, in the prologue of “Phaeton” by J. Lully, Louis XIV is glorified, while in the very plot of the opera his mythological “analogue” - the sun god Helios - acts. Such an interpretation, of course, was largely due to the connection of the genre of lyrical tragedy with the culture of France during the reign of the “Sun King” (during this period lyrical tragedy experienced its heyday). It is well known that the idea of the absolutization of royal power was reflected in many aspects of the culture of that time, including in music. And yet, reducing the lyrical tragedy only to the idea of glorifying the monarch is hardly legitimate. The tendency towards allegorical interpretation, allegory, permeates a variety of art forms of that time, representing an element of artistic thinking generally.

The figurative system of lyrical tragedy deserves special attention. The world of images of lyrical tragedy appears as an ideal world, existing outside a specific time dimension. It has a fundamentally “monochromatic” character - the variety of semantic shades of reality does not seem to exist for it. The development of the plot itself is predetermined from the beginning - the plot (no matter how complex and confusing it may be) assumes isolation and is oriented towards maintaining a given order and harmony. Therefore, the characters of a lyrical tragedy are endowed with strictly defined traits. The character of the character here has an emphatically “monolithic” character - inconsistency (internal or external) is completely unusual for him. Even at critical points in the development of the plot (scenes from the fifth act in “Armide and Renault” by Lully, or the despair of Theseus in the fifth act of “Hippolytus and Arisia” by J. Rameau, for example), the character of the hero is conceived as a psychologically unified and indivisible complex. In this case, the character appears, as a rule, immediately in all its fullness; its gradual revelation in action is not typical for lyrical tragedy (which distinguishes it, for example, from Gluck’s reform operas). It is clear that the dynamic variability of character, its gradual formation or transformation, which became an integral feature of the interpretation of character in operatic works of later times, is also not typical of it.

As can be seen from all that has been said, such an understanding of character tends more towards its generalized embodiment than towards an individualized one. However, this is quite consistent with both the tendency for a symbolic and allegorical interpretation of myth, and with the desire to present an idealized and sublime world in opera, which was already discussed above. In a broader sense, there is an obvious connection with classicist aesthetics, which influenced the development of lyrical tragedy. As N. Zhirmunskaya notes, “the aesthetic system of classicism is characterized by a tendency towards an abstractly generalized typified embodiment of human passions and characters<…>The rationalistic foundations of the aesthetics of classicism also determined its objective nature, which excluded the arbitrariness of the author’s imagination and minimized the personal element in a poetic work” ( Zhirmunskaya N. Tragedies of Racine // Jean Racine. Tragedies. Novosibirsk, 1977. P. 379).

The described features also predetermined the artistic means used in lyrical tragedy. It turns out to be characterized by exceptional harmony of composition, strictly verified symmetry and balance of dramatic proportions (it is interesting in this regard to remember that Lully began the creation of his works precisely with the development of a plan the whole). This precision is present both at the architectonic level and at the level of composition of a separate act (symmetrical repetitions of choirs or dance numbers, logic of tonal plans, etc.), a separate number (use of a three-part form, rondo form, etc.) . It is not surprising that lyrical tragedies evoked analogies with the architectural monuments of Versailles. However, such analogies should not mislead as to the true nature of the dramaturgy of these works. Thus, V. Konen writes: “Lully acted not as an architect working with musical material, but as a musician, to whom architectonic thinking was deeply characteristic and manifested itself at every stage of the creative process - both in the close-up composition and in the details of the musical language” ( Konen V. The path from Lully to the classical symphony // From Lully to the present day. M., 1967. P. 15).

A similar system of means corresponds to the clearly expressed emotional restraint inherent in lyrical tragedy. The combination of a moderately elevated tone together with a hedonistic attitude of perception was obviously predetermined by the very aesthetics of French art of the period under consideration (in a narrower sense, also by the aesthetics of the aristocratic court art of the reign of Louis XIV). In addition, it was due to the internal genetic connection of lyrical tragedy with the dramatic theater of France in the 17th century. (this connection also had very specific prerequisites. F. Kino, the author of the libretto of Lully’s operas, was a playwright who belonged to the French classical school, Lully himself collaborated with J.B. Moliere). R. Rolland writes that “French tragedy itself led to opera. Its proportionate dialogues, clear division into periods, phrases that respond to each other, noble proportions, and the logic of development called for a musical and rhythmic organization.” The style of lyrical tragedy is filled with “nobility and calm dignity, incompatible with any surprises, loving in its works their unshakable rationality, allowing the depiction only of passions that have passed through the artist’s perception” ( Rolland R. The history of opera in Europe before Lully and Scarlatti. Origins of modern musical theater // Romain Rolland. Musical and historical heritage: First edition. M., 1986. S. 233-234).

The artistic system of lyrical tragedy is distinguished by its amazing completeness - its constituent components are interconnected by the unity of both stylistic and aesthetic order. This allowed her to solve quite complex problems - even when they were generated by historical and local prerequisites. Nevertheless, the isolation of such an artistic system, the impossibility of going beyond certain restrictive limits during development, provided it with a relatively short historical “life”. And at the same time, the impact of lyrical tragedy on the subsequent development of opera was very intense (it was experienced, in particular, by G. Purcell, G. Handel, K. Gluck, W. Mozart) - it preserved this life in the memory of musical art.