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From Femme Ideale to Femme Fatale: Contexts for the Exotic Archetype in Nineteenth-Century French Opera

Grimmer, Jessica H
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384426378

Abstract Details

, M.M., University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music: Music History.
Chromatically meandering, even teasing, Carmen’s Seguidilla proves fatally seductive for Don Jose, luring him to an obsession that overrides his expected decorum. Equally alluring, Dalila contrives to strip Samson of his powers and the Israelites of their prized warrior. However, while exotic femmes fatales plotting ruination of gentrified patriarchal society populated the nineteenth-century French opera stages, they contrast sharply with an eighteenth-century model populated by merciful exotic male rulers overseeing wandering Western females and their estranged lovers. Disparities between these eighteenth and nineteenth-century archetypes, most notably in treatment and expectation of the exotic and the female, appear particularly striking given the chronological proximity within French operatic tradition. Indeed, current literature depicts these models as mutually exclusive. Yet when conceptualized as a single tradition, it is a socio-political—rather than aesthetic—revolution that provides the basis for this drastic shift from femme ideale to femme fatale. To achieve this end, this thesis contains detailed analyses of operatic librettos and music of operas representative of the eighteenth-century French exotic archetype: Arlequin Sultan Favorite (1721), Le Turc genereux, an entree in Les Indes Galantes (1735), La Recontre imprevue/Die Pilgrime von Mekka (1764), and Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (1782). Taking cues from Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism as a reflection of the collective fears of western society, it places them within a socio-political and cultural context via appropriate primary and secondary sources. It applies the same method to operas representative of the nineteenth-century French exotic archetype: L’Africaine (1865), Carmen (1875), Samson et Dalila (1877) and Lakme (1883). To account for the nineteenth century’s break with eighteenth-century exotic plot archetypes, this study documents the socio-political backlash against female liberties following the French Revolution. Such documentation includes a combination of primary-source historical accounts, political documents—most importantly the 1804 Code Napoleon—and secondary source commentary. The resulting history presents a continuous—though malleable—lineage of French exotic opera that responds to shifting socio-political and cultural fluctuations.
Jonathan Kregor, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
bruce mcclung, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Mary Sue Morrow, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
110 p.
Music
Exoticism and Orientalism; Eighteenth-Century French Opera; Nineteenth-Century French Opera; Opera Archetypes; French Revolution; Exotic as Feminine

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Grimmer, J. H. (n.d.). From Femme Ideale to Femme Fatale: Contexts for the Exotic Archetype in Nineteenth-Century French Opera [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384426378

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Grimmer, Jessica. From Femme Ideale to Femme Fatale: Contexts for the Exotic Archetype in Nineteenth-Century French Opera. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384426378.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Grimmer, Jessica. "From Femme Ideale to Femme Fatale: Contexts for the Exotic Archetype in Nineteenth-Century French Opera." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati. Accessed APRIL 06, 2025. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384426378

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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