Féerie

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This article is about the theatrical genre. For the stage genre of opera ballets, see Opéra féerie. For the stage show, see Féerie (Moulin Rouge).

Féerie was a stage genre which saw its greatest success in 19th century France. Little known and little studied, it was one of the most major genres of that period, alongside melodrama and vaudeville. Influenced by romanticism's interest in folklore and mythology, féerie was marked by supernatural subjects, often inspired by fairytales, using supernatural creatures such as fairies and many machines and stage effects to create a grand spectacle representing magic and metamorphosis.

It originated in the ballets de cour of the Renaissance and in comédie-ballet. It developed into a separate genre in the first half of the 19th century then, from the 1860s onwards, merged with the show genre, employing ever more elaborate machinery, accessories and costumes. It also gave rise to 'féeries musicales', close cousins of opera, such as Le Roi Carotte by Offenbach (1872).

Authors such as Charles Nodier, Victor Hugo, George Sand and Gustave Flaubert (with his Le Château des cœurs of 1880) wrote féeries and critics such as the Goncourt brothers remarked on the literary potential of the works they produced. The genre also gave rise to much experimentation, but fell into disuse towards the end of the 19th century.

Sources

Roxane Martin, La féerie romantique sur les scènes parisiennes (1791-1864), Honoré Champion, Paris, 2007
The information in this article was translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia (version 6 septembre 2010 à 20:15).

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