French Baroque Opera: A Reader. (Book Reviews).

French Baroque Opera: A Reader. Edited by Caroline Wood and Graham Sadler. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2000. [ix, 160 p. ISBN 1- 84014-241-3. $69.95.]

"Every sea monster, for example, should be at least 18 feet long by 6 feet wide with an aperture in its head that could gobble up a twenty-year-old; how ridiculous a monster seems if it is reduced to snapping like a common guard dog. That is truly ignoble" (p. 125). So opined a Burgundian noblewoman in response to a court performance of Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera Persee in 1747. This delightfully evocative and historically telling statement joins a remarkably varied and revealing collection of source readings now easily accessible in English, thanks to Carolyn Wood anti Graham Sadler's French Baroque Opera: A Reader. Because interest in this repertory is burgeoning and little of the diverse literature generated by French opera is readily available in English, the book's aim is "to present a coherent sequence of translations which, between them, provide a wide-ranging and informative survey of the organization and evolution of French baroque opera, its aims and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses" (p. viii). One can happily add "and its reception" to this list.

Avoiding materials easily available elsewhere, Wood and Sadler have wisely chosen from a wide variety of sources, including official documents, theoretical and polemical writings, letters, newspaper reports, diaries, dictionary entries, reviews, and commentaries. Almost without exception, their selections and fluent translations easily convey to the general reader the multifaceted aspects of the French baroque operatic world. Indeed, even the French baroque scholar may find some surprises, such as the commentary on operatic monsters cited above.

In lieu of the more traditional chronological design, the editors have usefully organized the selections by six main topics, each of which forms a chapter: "The Paris Opera (1672-1770): Management and Mismanagement," "The Experience of Opera-Going," "Dramatic and Musical Ingredients," "Literary Theory and Aesthetics," "Critical Reaction anti Debate," and "Performances and Personalities." Within chapters, the readings are further organized by subtopic, with brief introductions to provide context. Thus chapter 3, "Dramatic and Musical Ingredients"--which one could easily assign in its entirety to students in an opera survey course--includes more than thirty selections and such subtopics as "The Libretto," "Music and Drama: French and Italian Opera Compared," anti "Musico-dramatic ...