Critical Revaluation of French Operetta: “La petite mariée” (1875)

Abstract

This paper aims to present part of an archive research that is being made in Brazil and France that has the purpose of understanding and analyzing the musical popular theater genre called operetta, in order to establish a critical revaluation of the genre. This genre was considered, by theater theoretical studies, during a long time, inferior when compared to dramas and comedies. However, nowadays exists a critical revision in Brazil that seeks to change that point of view. The historical research is a crucial part of this revaluation. For this paper, we place emphasis in the operetta La petite mariée (1875) (“The little married girl”) written by Eugéne Leterrier and Albert Vanloo. The material collected about the French operetta demonstrates how complex and refined the production of these shows was. Besides reviews, we found drawings of the scenes, posters and the manuscript of the director’s notebook. These materials are precious to the new critical appointments that this research aims to achieve, because they suggest that the quality of those pieces where as challenging as other better evaluated theater genres.