Airs d’opéra et scènes lyriques de compositrices

The 19th century was marked by an unprecedented surge in female composition. Musical education for women from the expanding bourgeoisie developed throughout Europe. This pool of musicians was added to the two other social groups which had enabled some women to become composers in previous periods: families of musicians and the aristocracy. The conservatories established during the century were co-educational, admitting young women initially to piano classes, then to those for other instruments and composition. Many more female composers than before thus succeeded in establishing themselves in musical life.

However, the genre of opera, like the symphony, remained very difficult for them to access. It is estimated that only about 1% of all operas, from the beginning of the genre around 1600 until the 1920s, was composed by women. Having operas performed required gaining entry to the institutions capable of staging them. Only Francesca Caccini, the first female opera composer, found herself in the position of court composer, at the Medici court in Florence, and was able to compose and have performed more than fifteen works. Apart from aristocrats writing for their court theatre, the other female opera composers who succeeded her had only sporadic access to the stage.

Nineteenth-century France, however, enjoys a unique position, as the three major Parisian opera houses admitted several female composers: the Opéra welcomed Louise Bertin and Augusta Holmès; the Opéra-Comique, Mademoiselle Le Sénéchal de Kercado, Julie Candeille, Sophie Gail, Louise Bertin, Loïsa Puget and Clémence de Grandval; and the Théâtre-Italien, Louise Bertin and Clémence de Grandval. Five of these composers are featured in this anthology.

Also in Paris, the Théâtre de la Renaissance, and in the provinces the Grand-Théâtre de Lille and the Grand-Théâtre de Bordeaux, respectively welcomed Marguerite Olagnier, Juliette Folville and Clémence de Grandval for premieres from which we give excerpts. We added Pauline Viardot for a work created in a Parisian society theatre.

Finally, we have included works akin to the genre of opera: lyrical scenes by Louise Farrenc and Pauline Viardot, a romance by Laure Cinti-Damoreau and two arias from a dramatic symphony by Cécile Chaminade.