Event

The Politics of Glory: An Angelology of the Opera Chorus
What can opera choruses tell us about historical imaginaries of publicness in non-democratic societies?And what is the political logic of their use in these societies’ forms of musical theater? This talk broachesthese questions in the context of Ancien Régime France and its premier operatic form, the tragédie en musique,taking up the case of its ubiquitous choruses glorifying authority figures. Choruses like these have long beentaken as signaling the genre’s ideological nature, as essentially an apologetics for the Bourbon monarchy.Yet ideology critique does not explain many of these choruses’ most salient features or their striking longevityin French opera, extending through the Revolutionary period. I take Giorgio Agamben’s archaeology of gloryas a provocation for an alternate view of what I will call the genre’s “contemplative choruses” of praise, celebration, and acclamation, as elaborating a doxological myth of citizenship modeled on the angels. The talk concludes with thoughts on contemplative singing as the particular vocation of the opera chorusin this tradition, and an unexpected source of its politicality. While the tragédie en musique routinely putchoruses to use in support of Bourbon absolutism, this utility represents the genre’s capture of contemplation’sfundamental “inoperativity.” I argue that inoperativity is the political core of opera’s contemplative choruses,in which singing with others—and enjoying singing—opens a human potentiality beyond any governing purpose.