FRANCE DURING

THE TIME OF
PHANTOM OF THE
OPERA

Oscar Gutierrez

It all started on 28 October 1873. The story goes

something like this: a young piano player was burnt in the
face in the fire of the rue Le Peletiers conservatory. His
fiance, a ballerina at the Conservatory, lost her life in the
fire. Inconsolable and disfigured, he sought refuge in the
underground space below the Paris Opera House, which
was then being built.

The French Third Republic - La

Troisime Rpublique

It governedFrancefrom 1870, when theSecond French

Empirecollapsed, to 1940, when France's defeat byNazi
Germanyled to theVichy France government.

The moderates became deeply divided over theDreyfus

affair, and this allowed theRadicalsto eventually gain
power from 1899 until the Great War. During this period,
crises like the potential "Boulangist" coup d'tat in 1889,
showed the fragility of the republic.

The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century
is often termed thebelle poque. Although associated with
cultural innovations and popular amusements, France was
nevertheless a nation divided internally on notions of
religion, class, regionalisms and money, and on the
international front France came sometimes to the brink of
war with the other imperial powers, including Great Britain.

LITERATURE
POSITIVISM

After the establishment of the Third Republic,

it had coalesced into a unified system of
thought known asPositivism, a term coined by
the philosopherAuguste Comte.

Writers such asmile Zolaand artists

like douard ManetandPierre-Auguste Renoirepitomized
the spirit of Positivism.

Positivism survived as a movement until at least World War

I, but beginning in the 1890s was challenged by a rival
school of thought that saw the return of Romantic ideas. A
number of artists came to disagree with the cold
rationalism and logic of the Positivists, feeling that it
ignored human emotions.

LITERATURE
SYMBOLISM

The so-called Symbolists included the poetsPaul

VerlaineandStphane Mallarmand writers and
philosophers includedPaul Bourget,Maurice Barres,
andHenri Bergson.

Bourget denounced Positivist ideas and proclaimed

that man's salvation did not come from science, but by the
more traditional values of God, family, and country. He
espoused what he called "integral nationalism" and that
traditional institutions, reverence for one's ancestors, and
the sacredness of the French soil were what needed to be
taught and promoted.

ART

Caf culture, cabarets, arcades (19th century

covered malls),anarchism, the mixing of classes,
the radicalization of art and artistic movements
caused by the academicsalonsystem, a boisterous
willingness to shock all this made for a stunning
vibrancy. What is more, the dynamic debate in the
visual arts is also repeated in the same period in
music, dance, architecture and the novel. This is
the birth ofModernism.

douard Manetrepresents for many critics the division

between the 19th century and the modern period. His
rediscovery of Spanish painting from the golden age, his
willingness to show the unpainted canvas, his exploration
of the forthright nude and his radical brush strokes are the
first step toward Impressionism.

The Plum

The Bugler

The Reading

Carnations and Clematis in a Crystal Vase

ART

Impressionismwould take theBarbizon schoolone further,

rejecting once and for all a belabored style (and the use of
mixed colors and black), for fragile transitive effects of
light as captured outdoors in changing light.Claude
Monetwith his cathedrals and haystacks,Pierre-Auguste
Renoirwith both his early outdoor festivals and his later
feathery style of ruddy nudes,Edgar Degaswith his
dancers and bathers.

Claude Monet,Haystacks, (sunset)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir,Dance at
Le Moulin de la Galette

At the Races

MUSIC

In the late 19th century, pioneers likeGeorges Bizet,Jules

Massenet,Gabriel Faur,Maurice RavelandClaude
Debussy revitalized French music. The last two had an
enormous impact on 20th-century music - both in France
and abroad - and influenced many major composers.Erik
Satiewas also a very significant composer from that era.
His music is difficult to classify but sounds surprisingly
ahead of its time.

SCIENCE

France produced a large body of prominent scientists during the

late 19th century such asLouis PasteurandMarcellin Berthelot.

ECONOMY

Urbanizationof the largest cities was well under way, and Paris
was a leading world capital already. Smaller French towns and
the country's many small villages, however, were impoverished
and industrially backward.

Industrial development in France was rapid during the 19th

century. Around the great cities, and in the north and in other
areas which had natural resources readily available, large
industries formed. Capital was available through banking
services largely located, since the Revolution, in Paris. The large
French population of the time supplied an available workforce.

PARIS

Paris became world famous for making

consumerism a social priority and
force, especially through its
arcades filled with luxury shops
grand department stores. These
"dream machines" that set the
standard for consumption of fine
the upper classes as well as
middle class.

economic
upscale
and its
were
world
products by
the rising

The Grands Magasins Dufayel was a huge department store

with inexpensive prices built in 1890 in the northern part of
Paris, where it reached a very large new customer base in
the working class. In a neighborhood with few public spaces,
it provided a consumer version of the public square. It
educated workers to approach shopping as an exciting social
activity not just a routine exercise in obtaining necessities,
just as the bourgeoisie did at the famous department stores
in the central city.

Paris Exposition, view from ground level of the Eiffel tower with
Parisians promenading