La Diffusion du comique en Europe à travers les productions d'opere buffe, d'opéras-comiques et de komische Opern (France - Allemagne - Italie, 1800-1850)

This study of the diffusion of comic in Europe, through the productions of opere buffe, opéras-comiques and komische Opern during the first half of the 19th century, firstly examines the libretti and their circulation, then the diffusion of comic operas, and lastly the musical structural models of comic and their transfers. The French theatre inaugurates the age of « industrial literature » imposing itself on the whole continent, and the French librettists benefit from the profitable system of royalties. Discredited and badly payed, the Italian and German librettists translate and adapt a great number of French plays. While the opera buffa enjoys an incredible diffusion in France and in Germany between 1800 and 1850, as well in the original language as in translation, and while the opéra-comique follows suit in Germany (but always in translation), the komische Oper is rarely played in France, and the French and German genres remain unknown in Italy. The structural models of Italian comic, of which Rossini’s opere buffe are the most famous expression, are taken up by French and German composers in their own works. The German composers also borrow from the structural models of French comic, so much so that the genre of the komische Oper ends up consisting principally of a synthesis of French and Italian elements. During a period characterised by the rise of nationalisms, the circulation of the works, the librettists and the composers paradoxically favours the construction of a European unity through laughter.