A theatrical tradition already present in Corsica...
In the second half of the 18th century, the description of the Moresca performed in Vescovato in honor of the Count de Marbeuf, Governor General of Corsica and protector of the Bonapartes, shows an extremely complex spectacle performed by over a hundred shepherd-dancers. A theatrical tradition therefore existed in Corsica, which was not limited to performances in the sala maggiore of the Genoese governors' palace in Bastia (with extremely rigorous protocol) or to the teatri sacri of Holy Week, with all the baroque pomp of sepolchri and grand processions.
Knowledge of the great Italian texts, Jerusalem Delivered and Roland Furieux, spread throughout Corsican society, and the Bonaparte family's shepherds called Gertrude, Charles' sister and therefore Napoleon's aunt, Clorinde, after the warrior princess of Jerusalem Delivered.
Around 1742, the Marquis de Cursay organized grand lyric concerts to win over Bastia's high society, during which female singers performed arias by Pergolese and Vinci.
But it was this same Marbeuf who built Corsica's first wooden theater, and recent research by J-C Liccia (curator of the exhibition) has shown the quality of the opera singers and dancers who performed there, from all over Europe.
Opera at the heart of social life...
Under the Second Empire, opera became the center of social life: the construction of the Bastia opera house by Andrea Scala gave rise to Homeric quarrels between the prefect, who wanted Gounod and Massenet to be included in the repertoire, and the mayor, who only liked Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. In 1869, Empress Eugenie attended a performance of Verdi's Trouvère at Ajaccio's Théâtre Saint-Gabriel.
Corsican folk music traditions...
The exhibition would not be complete without an evocation of Corsican folk music traditions, which were also played in patrician salons, as witnessed by the Duchesse d'Abrantès...
One day, early in the morning, I went to the far end of the château*, to a large, abandoned gallery, where there was a piano, or rather a bad spinet that Mademoiselle de Launay, Madame Mère's reader, and I had repaired as best we could; finding myself in front of this piano, as bad as it was, I began to rehearse a little goatherd song sung in the mountains of Corsica, with the intention of making a little nocturne for two voices to sing to Madame. Saveria had heard me and was soon sobbing behind me.
Temporary exhibition from October 14, 2022 to January 15, 2023
At the Maison Bonaparte, rue St Charles