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- Title
Marie Pélissier (1707-49), the diva of the Dulis affair.
- Authors
Rivera, Gina
- Abstract
The Parisian soprano Marie Pélissier (1707-49) breathed life into heroines both mythological and operatic, even as period satires described her as a troubling anti-heroine--a pouting parakeet. These are only a few facets of a broader critical framework that impacted on her together with other so-called filles de l'Opéra in the early 18th century. She starred in elaborate parodies that called attention to her unpredictable romances, the most famous of which involved her theft of cash and gold from a wealthy Dutch patron, the Jewish financier François Lopez Dulis. One satire cast Dulis as a helpful pelican to the parakeet Pélissier. The disparagements themselves have complex roots in the history of operatic criticism. Like a number of her colleagues, Pélissier professed a fluency in pantomime that advanced her musical career even as her skills distracted significantly from a multimedia genre that commentators repeatedly described as monstrueux (monstrous). While historical fascination with Pélissier centred on the idea that she was at best a siren and at worst a monstrous thief, it did not stray far from suspicions that what was revolutionary about opera itself stemmed from a diva avant la lettre: a pilfering parakeet who was numbered among the earliest Parisian leading women.
- Subjects
EARLY music; PELISSIER, Marie; DULIS, Francois Lopez; FRENCH opera; MUSICOLOGY; EIGHTEENTH century
- Publication
Early Music, 2015, Vol 43, Issue 2, p309
- ISSN
0306-1078
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/em/cau132