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250 operas parodies
1110 vaudevilles (tunes from the classical or popular music)
Listen to the melodies linked to the texts
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Theaville is a search tool both literary and musical about eighteenth century Fairground Theatres.
Theaville is published by CETHEFI (Centre d'étude des théâtres de la Foire et de la Comédie-Italienne).


Since the 18th century operas parodies have been underrated because of their minor artistic status (beyond the bounds of the more famous creations of the Royal Academy of Music) also because of ignorance of a substantial part of their productions and because of the difficulty in tackling the various levels of understanding inherent in some of these plays. However, studying the phenomenon of opera parody allows us to better understand masterpieces of the lyric art and becomes more familiar with the conditions of artistic creation during the Ancien Régime.

This program has received support of the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) and the Région Pays de la Loire and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Ange-Guépin.

More information about the project.


Illustration from Parodies du Nouveau Théâtre-Italien, t. III:
"... [she] represents Critic in the guise of a satyr decorating Arlequin with the clothes of theater heroes".


Theaville