Tsodokov E.S. Three centuries of Opera-Comique

Abstract: Part 1. The object of research.The object of the present research is the famous Parisian music theatre “Opera Comique” which has marked its 300 years anniversary this year. The author traces the history of the theatre, the main stages of its development and its role in the history of music and theatre art in France. Attention is paid to the repertoire policy of the theatre during its three centuries, as well as to the famous productions, important in opera history, the first nights of “Carmen” by Bizet, “Manon” by Massenet, “Pelleas and Melizande” by Debussy and others. Information is given about the works of Russian composers - Musorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov which were staged in the theatre, about Russian opera artists who performed on this stage.Part 2. Methods and methodology of research.While preparing the material work has been done on finding information, electronic archives of the theatre “Opera Comique” have been studied, as well as the first-hand sources, such as memoires of a number of musicians. The main methods of research were textual and semantic analysis of the sources and historic and cultural analysis of the context of the theatre’s activity. Part 3. The Novelty of Results.The innovativeness of the present research lies in the fact that in our country it is the first systematic rendering of the history of Parisian music theatre “Opera Comique” since its foundation till our days, fiving the full idea of all periods and important events in its history. This research is an innovative project of presenting empirical facts as an evidence of historic dynamics of culture and evolution of a cultural form in a combination of synchronic and diachronic analysis.

Keywords: