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CHAPTER 2
THE ORIGINS OF OPERA IN FRANCE
Music and poetry have long been allied in France, and their
alliance may be traced as far back in history as the times of the
jongleurs, the troubadours and trouveres, and the medieval theatre.
Most troubadours and trouvferes were accomplished musicians as well
as poets, and the familiar forms they used are not only poetic but
musical. The earliest truly theatrical alliance of these two elements,
however, was the medieval momerie with elaborate costumes, settings,
and machinery, performed to entertain the Burgundian court of the
fifteenth century. Ludovic Celler describes the setting of these spec­
tacles designed to please a society interested, not only in chivalry,
but also in the refined arts of dance and music:
Si les mystSres etaient les spectacles des foules,
l'aristocratie feodale avait les siens dans l'interieur des
chateaux; les festins donnaient lieu 2. des surprises, a des
interm£des. C 1 etaient des scenes courtes, sortes de tournois
chevaleresques et galants oft figuraient, dans la salle meme du
festin, d' enormes pi&ces mecaniques montees ingenieusement,
des groupes de personnages, des trophees, des monstres surtout,
renfermant du feu ou des surprises gastronomiques. *
1. Ludovic Celler, Les Origines de 1' opera et le Ballet de
la Reine (Paris: Didier et Cie, 1868), p. 29.
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