THE FRENCH MUSICAL THEATER: MAINTAINING CONTROL IN CARIBBEAN COLONIES IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, musicians, poets, philosophers, and patrons of the arts were extremely fascinated with the "exotic"--that huge realm of ideas and events that thrived on a sense of the Other. In the Americas, displaced Amerindians and enslaved Africans, deprived of equality and freedom, were "rendered in racist terms as qualitatively different." This idea of essential difference promoted the concept of the exotic and became "a counter in the making of modern European identity" (Yolton et al. 1992). Thus, by the first decade of the seventeenth century, the values of European colonial powers with regard to New World explorations were firmly entrenched in ethnocentrism.

The notion that Amerindians and African slaves were inferior was unquestionably accepted by the French, who meticulously recorded their first impressions of inhabitants of the New World (see, for example, Bougainville [1772] 1967; Du Tertre 1667, 355-537; Labat 1722). Modern scholars writing on the concept of the Other have argued that "the best candidates for the role of exotic ideal are the peoples and cultures that are most remote from us and least known to us, [and] the exotic preference is almost always accompanied by an attraction for certain contents at the expense of others" (Todorov 1993, 265). To underscore this notion of inferiority, the French Bourbon monarchy, beginning with Louis XIII in the early seventeenth century, continuously waged a cultural political campaign in which elected officials and other persons of authority focused on the social value of the performing arts as one of the primary means of maintaining control over their colonial subjects. The recurring theme in these productions was the glorification of the religious, military, and political powers of France. Each of these categories of power had its own musical repertoire that focused on three goals: to maintain the peace, to ensure absolute respect for the social hierarchy, and to promote French music.

The present study examines the various ways in which the category of political power contributed to the three goals in theatrical performances on the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Saint-Domingue.(1) Manifestations of political power were seen primarily in official ceremonies commemorating births, marriages, weddings, and other accomplishments of the king and his family. These were grandiose, spectacular events--festivals, public balls, plays, ballets, and operas, all lavishly produced and modeled on those performed in Paris. Small, private theater productions emerged in the colonies in the early eighteenth century; and in the latter half of the century larger theaters were built. Artistic centers sprang up; singers, actors, dance masters, and other artists were imported from France.(2)

The musical theater was a thriving enterprise in the colonies by the mid-eighteenth century and became one of the prime vehicles through which colonialism was not only tolerated but promoted and glorified. Thanks to the great efforts of the Haitian historian Jean Fouchard, we have much information on theatrical activity on his native island. There seem to have been at least eight theaters in Saint-Domingue, located in Port-au-Prince, Cap Francais, Saint-Marc, Leogane, Cayes, Jeremie, Petit-Goave, and Jacmel, of which the Cap Francais and Port-au-Prince facilities were the most successful (Fouchard 1995b, 1-115). As early as 1740, colonists in Cap Francais and small groups of local amateurs were engaged in organizing small plays, concerts, and other musical activities; some years later, in 1766, a new theater with a seating capacity of approximately 1,500 was opened. Port-au-Prince opened its first theater in 1762, and two decades later, its last theater of the century; with a seating capacity of 750, was completed.

By the early 1780s, Guadeloupe had two theaters, one in Pointe-a-Pitre, on the northern coast, and the other in Basse Terre, in the southern part of the island (Isert 1793, 326; Rosemain 1986, 42-49). In 1786, an elaborate theater with seating for eight hundred was built in Saint-Pierre, Martinique (Archives Nationales, F3/28, 132; B6108). According to a Danish official attending an opera performance there in 1787, this theater was very elegant:

   [It] surpasses in grandeur and taste the most renowned structures of this
   kind in Europe. It has a vast courtyard and in front of the main door a
   portal where litter bearers ascend to the upper level when they arrive and
   take the lower level when they return. It has four tiers of boxes, the
   first of which has an outside gallery all around where one can amuse
   oneself until the spectacle begins. People go out there also between acts
   for a little air without losing their place in the box. There is no
   separation in the tiers of boxes, and each person can take the place that
   suits him best. (Isert 1793, 339-341)

The Social Hierarchy

The social value of the category of political power primarily affected those whites at the upper level of colonial society and the black enfranchised--former slaves who were born in the colonies but had obtained their freedom, primarily through marriage to a white person, or were descendants of such a union. In general, the enfranchised were small shopkeepers, teachers, and cabaret owners or were trained in other trades. By the mid-eighteenth century, slaves outnumbered whites by more than fifteen to one ("Memoire du 7 mars 1777" 1978; Curtin 1969, 75-84). Consequently, the

continued growth of the colonies did not depend only on slave labor; but, since so few whites remained in the colonies, skilled workers were also in demand. With the support of their former masters, a select number of the enfranchised eagerly attempted to fill this need.

Although legally free, the enfranchised suffered indignities from whites of all classes. Their place of residence, travel, employment, and many other facets of their daily lives were severely restricted. This is clearly reflected in an official mandate sent to governors of the colonies. The document emphasized the subordinate role of all people of color, pointing out that the enfranchised "still maintain the stain of slavery and are declared incapable of all public functions. The men, even those who descend, to whatever degree, from a woman of color, cannot enjoy the prerogative of nobility" ("Memoire du 7 mars 1777" 1978, 66). Thus, the enfranchised found themselves trapped in a unique social order that was based primarily on one's date of discharge from slavery; the color of one's skin, and the value of one's material belongings. Whites encouraged such stratification, for they regarded the enfranchised--many of whom were their sons and daughters--as allies against threats of slave revolt. In sum, this social ordering helped to maintain the peace and to ensure absolute respect for the social hierarchy.

Conscious of the importance of stature in this new society and, thus, motivated by the desire to distance themselves from the status of enslavement, many of the enfranchised imitated the colonists--aristocrats of French colonial society. For the colonists, attendance at or participation in French dances, concerts, operas, and the spoken theater played an important social role, as it indicated certain levels of social distinction and prestige. They closely adhered to the Parisians' fondness for entertaining guests in their homes with a concert or excerpts from an opera or a play. The enfranchised organized dinner parties for similar purposes, frequented the theater, and dutifully claimed the seats assigned to them. In all theaters in the colonies, the rear portion of the blacony was reserved for the enfranchised, with seating allotted according to skin color. This space generally was called Paradis pour les gens de couleurs. Such arrangement helped to ensure absolute respect for the social hierarchy and clearly illustrated the French view of the performing arts as a positive motivating influence on the individual. This was underscored in an official document addressing the need for a theater in Saint-Pierre in which the directors stated that because of the constant exposure to French theater, free men of color had lost much of the "barbarity of their origin and, thus, had become civilized in their manners and custom" ("Memoire concernant" 1780).

Musical Theater: Reflecting the Pulse of the Nation

In order to fully comprehend the significance of opera productions in French Caribbean colonies, one must have some grasp of the high esteem in which the French regarded their musical theater. Thus, before discussing theater activity in the colonies specifically, I will address that issue.

One of the most important characteristics of French opera of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the emphasis placed on the construction of a dramatically sound libretto. This included not only the text and music but also dance, mise-en-scene, decor, costumes, and the various types of machinery. The French--unlike their thriving Italian counterparts--considered opera as a total union of music, poetry, and dance. French opera was created during the era of Corneille and Racine, the great exponents of the French classical tragedy, when literary standards were raised considerably. The success (or failure) of an opera was attributed to literary form as well as to its various traditional musical components.(3) As a contemporary observer noted, "an excellent poem [is] absolutely necessary in order to assure the continual success of an opera. The music, by itself, can give it only a passing vogue when the work first appears" (Mably 1741, 6). Although no opera librettist achieved the stature of Corneille or Racine, the desire for better librettos remained a constant concern well into the eighteenth century.

In fact, all components of French opera were involved almost continuously in various controversies that prompted an abundance of literary criticisms ("paper wars"). The first controversy centered on French versus Italian traits, a subject that is covered in the writings of l'Abbe Francois Raguenet and Jean Laurent Lecerf de la Vieville. During visits to Rome at the turn of the century, Raguenet became an ardent admirer of Italian music and, on his return to France, severely criticized the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully (Raguenet [1702] 1966).(4) On the other side of the fence was Lecerf ([1715] 1966), who responded in kind. This debate seems to have reached its peak during the late teens and then lost its intensity during the 1720s (see also Bonnet 1715; Le Brun 1712).

Another "paper war" was prompted by the premiere production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (October 1, 1733), which set off a series of literary works ranging from brief letters (many of them anonymous) to massive volumes of critical essays on each component of French opera, particularly the vocal music of Lully and Rameau (see, e.g., Mably 1741; for an extensive bibliography, see Masson 1911, 187-211). On the one hand, some musicians, poets, and patrons of the arts, the lullistes, clung unrelentingly to the ideals of the musique ancienne rather than surrender to the beliefs of their counterparts, the ramistes, who, according to the lullistes, preferred the "unintelligibility, complexity, and confusion" of the musique moderne (Observations 1735-1743, 2:238). Lully's supporters argued that the composer had accomplished that which most of the others could only conceive in their imaginations (Andre 1770, 234). In the other camp, the ramistes felt that the public acclaim for the music of Rameau resulted in much jealousy and very bad imitations (Pluche 1756, 7:99); they referred to Rameau as their Orpheus (D'Aquin 1754, 54).

The third controversy, known as the War of the Buffoons (Querelle des Bouffons), was sparked by the performance of Pergolesi's intermezzo La Serva padrona by an Italian troupe in Paris. This debate, too, centered on the respective merits of French music and Italian music (Launay 1973). (Curiously, however, the operas on which the stream of pamphlets and letters focused were of two completely different types--French serious opera and Italian comic opera.) Paris was divided into two camps again. The partisans of French music, especially the works of Rameau, were defended by Mme de Pompadour and the king. On the other side, the queen leaned toward the Italians. This division was reflected at the Opera through the assembly of the royal loges, which were designated le coin du roi and le coin de la reine--the king's corner and the queen's; thus, the controversy became known also as le guerre des coins (Machard 1980, 81).

Although such debates continued throughout the eighteenth century, these "paper wars" consistently reflect agreement among the authors on two points: French music had a profound effect on the behavior of the individual, and French opera was considered to be the best of French music.

The five acts of French opera were generally preceded by a prologue which--beginning with the reign of Louis XIV (1643-1715)--essentially was written specifically for the glorification of the monarch and addressed him directly (or sometimes indirectly) through the pronouncements of various divinities, heroes, and their followers. In addition, some works were also prefaced with a florid dedication to a member of the royal family.(5)

Such voluntary show of devotion and respect for the monarch was carried over to a much greater degree in the colonies, the difference being that absolute respect for French officials and other persons of authority was forced upon the enslaved and free gens de couleur--a necessary ingredient to aid the authorities in maintaining control over these persons. Further, since most African music was strictly prohibited (Code Noir 1742), the enslaved and free gens de couleur were immersed in French music on a daily basis--not only in the theater but also in the parishes, in the homes of colonists, on the docks, and in other places of business. As we look closely at the preoccupation of the French with their music and its effect on the individual, it becomes clearer why the same standards of musical theater were extended to the colonies and played such an important role in French Caribbean colonial society.

French musicians, poets, and patrons of the arts were also fascinated with the "exotic"--that huge realm of ideas and events that thrived on a sense of the Other. In many of the operas performed in France, a scene, an act, or an entire work focused on colonial society and reflected the French perception of the Other.(6) These "exotic" operas or sections of operas generally depicted colonial subjects dancing, singing, and praising the ruling monarch for conquering their homeland and putting them under his "benevolent" rule. Several ballets and operas without "exotic" sections,(7) which were at the height of popularity in Paris, were later produced in the colonies in the same fashion.

Ballet productions generally had several entrees, each of which consisted of various types of dances, vocal solo pieces, and choral ensembles. This mirrored contemporary French court traditions and the love of the French courtiers for the dance. Louis XIII (1601-1643) had been an avid admirer and supporter of court ballet; and Louis XIV continued in his father's steps, supporting and dancing in several works. This penchant for the dance was also very prevalent in French operas of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for in each act of an opera, space was generally allotted for a variety of song and dance ensembles. This section, the divertissement, often featured the use of the enslaved. They were well prepared for these productions because they had been thoroughly trained in the galant dances of the French court and had learned a variety of musical techniques from missionaries and other artists imported from France. They performed several galant dances and a variety of proper songs (French airs and ariettes), all of which glorified the power of the monarchy through their texts, movements, and gestures. Thus, all three goals of political power were met.

In the eighteenth century, some of these operas were one-act pieces, with two or three being performed on a given night. Other were generally in three acts with or without a prologue. The mood was gay, light, and serene, with very few works requiring a long attention span. These works were a reflection of the times--or, more precisely, a means of escape for a nation exhausted, financially as well as emotionally, from decades of war with European neighbors; an escape from the growing unrest as the number of slave revolts and runaways continued to mount; and an escape for government officials who labored in their attempts to appease the growing fear of the whites with regard to the burgeoning black population.(8)

Several subspecies of opera were performed: opera-comique, opera-bouffon, ballet-heroique, pastorale, and pastorale-heroique. For the most part, the plots of these operas were geared to maintaining the peace, and much of the repertoire consisted of elements of the pastorale, the theme of which focused on peace, tranquility, virtuous love, and the pursuit of pleasure (Powers 1988, 1:8-36). The setting was always a pleasant landscape, such as enchanted gardens, a tranquil coast, or peaceful woods. The contrast was drawn between the innocence and serenity of pastoral life and the misery, corruption, and other intricacies of court and city existence, although in several of these works the Bourbon monarch--especially Louis XIV--was praised as the provider of peace, pleasure, and love.

The superiority of France over her European neighbors was also a constant theme in a few ballets and operas. The Spaniards were depicted as lazy, indifferent, and having little intellect; the English, as cold and insensitive; and the Portuguese, as the most brutal of the lot. These ideas were certainly in tune with contemporary thought; according to the philosophers Diderot and Raynal, the enslaved were "playmates for the indolence" of the Spaniards, "instruments of seduction" for the Portuguese, "victims of the greed" of the Dutch, and, for the English, "purely physical beings to use or destroy at will ... never smiling nor speaking to them" (Raynal 1780, 4:178). Voltaire was equally critical of the "arrogant" and "greedy" Spanish colonizers. Focusing on the sufferings of the Peruvians under the Spaniards, Voltaire charged that "these tyrants, seduced by gold found in the Americas, think that the heavens made America [especially] for them" (Voltaire 1823, 4:3). Montesquieu ([1721] 1986, 295-299) held these European neighbors in such contempt that, to him, the Spaniards, who despise "all other nations, do the French alone the honor of being hated by them." French colonists, not surprisingly, were described as "men of honor and sensitivity, less arrogant, less disdainful, grant[ing] to Africans a type of morality" (Raynal 1780, 4:178). On the other hand, it is interesting to note how French colonial society was perceived by other Europeans, some of whom seemed to be rather uncomfortable in that grand theater of Saint-Pierre. Note, for example, the opinion of the previously quoted Danish official attending the opera there:

   It is a great inconvenience for us North Europeans to be suffocated in
   these huge assemblies by the odor of musk with which the fashionable
   society is scented.... To poison the air more, all around you, everyone has
   a fan with which they agitate this distressing vapor like a storm stirs up
   the dust. (Isert 1793, 340-341)

Evidently, the official did not share the French passion for perfume.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, particularly just prior to the French Revolution, the repertoires of the theaters in Saint-Domingue also reflected the "other" society. They included creole parodies of many successful works that had premiered in Paris as well as several pieces of local origin with descriptive titles such as Calenda, Danse negre, Pas creole, and Danse locale. In contrast, the repertoires of the Guadeloupe and Martinique theaters primarily seem to have continued the practice of producing only French works (see, for example, Gazette de Saint-Domingue 1780-1789; Gazette de al Martinique 1785-1788; Fouchard 1955a, 93-270). Thus, in Saint-Domingue, with its burgeoning black population, constant slave revolts and escapes, and quest for independence from French colonial rule, one can see, through the theatrical repertoire, that the three goals of French power--maintaining the peace, promoting French music, and ensuring absolute respect for the social hierarchy--were beginning to unravel.

The Artists

As indicated previously, most of the musicians, choreographers, dance teachers, and singers were imported from France. Comparisons of news gazettes and journals in the colonies reveal that many of these artists worked first in Guadeloupe or Martinique, then, after between three and five years, moved to Saint-Domingue. Due to the increasing slave revolts in Saint-Domingue, they finally settled in New Orleans in the early 1790s or returned to Martinique where the theater still flourished.

Using the enslaved in ballet and opera productions could occur only with the permission of the slavemaster. This forced theater directors to confront a major problem. Since French law regulated every minute of the life of the enslaved, their involvement in these productions was a subject of constant disagreement between theater directors and some plantation owners. The latter felt that these productions required too much slave time and energy; which could be better spent in the sugar cane fields or performing other servile tasks. Nevertheless, since these events were so important socially, displaying one's slaves who could dance, sing, or perform well on the violin or other European instruments enhanced considerably the prestige of the master's house. Inevitably; with a few colonists promoting such talent, several young slave musicians were able to perform in opera and concert orchestras as early as the 1770s.

The most popular performers, however, appear to have been the two mulatto sisters Minette and Lise (Fouchard 1955b, 303-346). Minette began a brilliant singing career in 1781 at the Port-au-Prince theater, where she dominated the stage, assuming the leading role in some of the most successful operas and eclipsing the most talented white artists imported from Paris. Her sister, Lise, also a singer, made her debut three years later in Cayes, in the southern part of the island. Unlike her sister, who performed only in Port-au-Prince, Lise spread her success to at least four cities in Saint-Domingue: Cayes, Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, and Leogane.

In the area of theater production, one of the most interesting and bold examples of the enterprising talent of the enfranchised occurred in the city of Leogane in 1786. An entrepreneur, known only in archival sources as Mr. Labbe, assembled a group of actors chosen from various cities in Saint-Domingue and, at his sole expense, procured a hall of four hundred seats, seventy of which were in a gallery allocated for people of color, who were seated according to skin color, with the women being placed in the front (Fouchard 1955b, 91-93). A military guard assigned to the theater consisted of about fourteen men, most of whom were men of color; Labbe, a sergeant of the militia, was at the head of the contingent of men of color. Two years later, Labbe abruptly renounced his directorship and sold everything; no one knows why, but perhaps such a bold venture was just a trifle more than colonists and other officials could tolerate from a man of color.

Conclusion

The musical theater was a major force in French Caribbean colonial society, supporting and strengthing the three goals of the cultural political campaign of the Bourbon monarchy: maintaining the peace, promoting French music, and ensuring absolute respect for the social hierarchy. It helped to maintain the peace by providing not only entertainment that distracted the enslaved from unruly thoughts (such as independence) but also constant exposure to French music. From the middle of the seventeenth century, French poets and other authors frequently spoke of the calming influence of their music on the individual. They defined it as delicate, refined, galant--attributes that the French deemed to have an extremely positive influence on their subjects. The musical theater promoted French music, performed by the most acclaimed French and colonial artists. It ensured absolute respect for the social hierarchy through strict control of participation, attendance, and seating arrangements in the theater. It was through the medium of musical theater that many of the enfranchised attempted to shed the shackles of the status of enslavement. For French colonial authorities, this "process of refinement"--a phrase used ad nauseam by defenders of the system--played a significant role in the cultural political campaign of the Bourbon monarchy.

Blinded by their greed and their need to maintain control, colonizers disregarded, ignored, and attempted to erase the rich cultural heritage of imported Africans. Overpowering her subjects with the religious, military, and political powers of the throne, France gave her official stamp of approval to enslavement by establishing the Code Noir and other stringent regulations that controlled every facet of daily existence of the nonwhite population. Nevertheless, after more than a century of such laws and daily exposure to French culture, the powerful influence of African culture was very much alive in the theaters of Saint-Domingue on the eve of the French Revolution, with their creole dances, creole songs, and creole parodies of French operas.

(1.) Unless specifically noted, all references to "colonies" in this study pertain to these three islands. If an event pertains to only one island, such occurrence will be specifically indicated in the text.

(2.) The list of such artists who traveled to the colonies (and their contemporary status in opera productions in France) is extremely long. However, persons interested in consulting this detailed information may refer to the following documents housed in the Archives Nationales: Archives Ministres France d'Outre-mer, Registre de catholicite du mouillage; Archives des affaires etrangeres 5, 692, and 2, 107; Serie C8B15-80; Serie Colonies A, Actes du pouvoir souverain, Ancien Regime; Serie Colonies F, Documents divers, Ancien Regime; Serie F5B; and the Gazette de la Martinique 1780-1788.

(3.) These included airs (short binary vocal solos), ariettes (longer and extremely florid vocal airs), solo and choral ensembles, numerous dances and instrumental interludes, and recitatifs (long monologues in measured rhythm).

(4.) In 1673, Lully had acquired a lettre patente from Louis XIV granting him a monopoly on all opera productions, which he maintained until his death in 1687. Thus, during this period, only those operas composed by Lully were performed in Paris and at the royal residences (Versailles, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fontainebleau, Marly, and Choisy).

(5.) An example of this practice can be seen in one of the operas of Andre Detouches, Isse. The composer dedicated this work to the fifteen-year-old son of the Dauphin, the Duc de Bourgogne.

(6.) Examples include Jean-Baptiste Lully's Le Triomphe de Bacchus dans les Indes (1666), Idylle sur la paix (1685, libretto by Racine), and Le Temple de la paix (1685, libretto by Phillippe Quinault); C.J.B. Cheron's Le Temple des vertus (1700); Jean-Joseph Mouret's Les Fete, ou le triomphe de Thalie (1714); and Jean-Baptiste Niel's Les Romans (1736).

(7.) Among the most successful of these, according to performance records maintained in France (Bibliotheque Nationale, Biblioteque de l'Opera, Bibliotheque Municipale de Versailles, and Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal), were B. Blaise's Annette et Lubin (1762); M. Monsigny's Les Aveux indiscrets (1759); M. Gardel's La Chercheuse d'esprit (1756); J.-J. Rousseau's Le Devin du village (1752); E Lagarde's Egle (1748); J.-Ph. Rameau's Les Indes galantes (1735); C. W. Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide (1774), Iphigenie en Tauride (1779), and Orphee et Eurydice (1774); S. Champein's La Melomanie (1781); A.E.M. Gretry's La Rosiere de Salenci (1770); and J.-J. de Mondonville's Titon et l'Aurore (1753).

(8.) For an elaboration of the response of the French crown to this crisis, see Edit du Roy concernant les esclaves negres des colonies (Code Noir 1742, 196-206).

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DAVID M. POWERS completed graduate studies in musicology at the University of Chicago. This article was extracted from a larger study she is currently preparing that explores the relationship between colonialism, the shaping of the concept of the Other through musical events, and Western European societal values in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.3