AMS Philadelphia 2009 Abstracts - American Musicological Society

112 saturday morning AMS Philadelphia 2009
DisPlAceMents
lydia goehr, columbia university, chair
“ALLONS EN PAIX, REBATIR NOS MAISONS”:
STAGING THE réFUgié EXPERIENCE
Rebekah Ahrendt
University of California, Berkeley
In 1707, impresario, novelist, and spy Jean-Jacques Quesnot de la Chênée produced livrets
for two operatic works: La Bataille de Hoogstet, tragédie en musique and La Bataille de ramelie
ou Les glorieuses conquests des Alliez, pastorale heroique. He dedicated them to the burgomasters
of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, respectively, in a last desperate attempt to succeed on the operatic
stage after a career full of misadventures. Both works laud Grand Alliance victories, but
from a particular perspective—that of a French Protestant exile.
The Battle of Blenheim (13 August 1704) was Marlborough’s first victory, and that of Ramillies
(23 May 1706) was his greatest; together they resulted in the most significant French
defeats of the War of the Spanish Succession. Louis XIV lost many of his territorial gains, and
Maximilian II Emanuel was ousted from both Bavaria and the Southern Netherlands. Regime
change had come.
The new order significantly impacted one group of civilians—Huguenot refugees. Maximilian
II Emanuel’s alliance with Louis XIV had made life very difficult for Huguenots.
Quesnot, then resident in the Southern Netherlands, was especially sensitive to this. Although
his onstage battles are part of a long spectacular tradition, they are perhaps the only celebrations
of Allied victories in French. Furthermore, rather than reinforcing the political status
quo, these works advocate the embrace of a new political regime.
One of the most striking things about these works is their representation of civilians. In La
Bataille de Hoogstet, the peoples of Swabia are portrayed as emblems of fear, stylized victims
ready for rescue by the benevolent Marlborough, whose advent is heralded by Queen Anne
herself. In La Bataille de ramelie, the inhabitants of the Southern Netherlands are depicted in
the pastoral mode as shepherds, rustics, and drunks, yet their houses have been burned and
their lands ruined by “forageurs.” Quesnot’s explicit representation of the civilian plight, as
well as his invocation of a sort of fantasy island where the “bergers fugitifs et refugiés” will be
able to rebuild their homes, speaks not only to his own refugee experience, but to the importance
of communicating it to audiences far removed from the battlefield.
No music survives for these works—or does it? These operatic battles seem to display more
of an affinity with the Dutch oorlogspel or German occasional works than with French opera,
as might be expected considering the intended audience. However, as I demonstrate,
Quesnot’s generic designations and prefaces not only create a certain set of expectations for
his readers, but also provide clues as to his source materials. It seems that these works are based
on parodies of famous airs from French opera.
Utilizing a number of archival documents and early prints heretofore unstudied, this paper
brings to light an alternate world of French operatic performance, one that catered to those
displaced whether by choice or by force and that demonstrates the repurposing of Lullian
operatic conventions in a framework opposed to absolute monarchy.