Les Fra-Maçonnes

In the staged version by Les Menus-Plaisirs du Roy (première in September 2020), a magic lantern will illustrate Poinsinet's ballad opera Les Fra-Maçonnes. The staging will also include a paper theatre, while a "German organ" will accompany the musicians.

The argument

On Tuesday 9 July 1754, Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour, an opéra-ballet by Cahusac and Rameau, was revived at the Royal Academy of Music. As was customary at the time for works that had "succeeded", parodies sprang up to mock the piece.

And so it was: on 28 August 1754, at the Saint-Laurent Fair, Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poinsinet gave the Parisian public a parody drawn from the "Amazons" act of Les Fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour: Les Fra-Maçonnes. Though the history of the Parisian fairs no longer needs writing, for it has been studied and well documented by numerous scholarly works, let us nonetheless note, briefly, the exemplary place held by the Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent Fairs in the evolution of the performing arts. In an Ancien Régime France beset by the recriminations and rebuffs of the licensed theatres, which vigorously demanded strict respect for their privileges, the fairground players had to invent any number of subterfuges in order to practise their art. From these many painful struggles to win the "right to the stage" was born, in particular, the opéra-comique. Poinsinet's Fra-Maçonnes thus belongs to a place heavily charged with theatrical passions and histories… It would be equally beside the point to detail here the life and work of Poinsinet. Nevertheless, for a proper understanding of the piece we shall shortly present, it seemed useful to note a few striking traits of his personality…

First of all, our author's very great credulity:

Although he did not lack a certain wit, Poinsinet had a singular ignorance of the most ordinary things, a self-regard, an extreme credulity and a naivety such that his name had become proverbial: people would say "As stupid as Poinsinet". As his ignorance was mixed with much vanity, he could be persuaded of anything one wished. His presumption, his ignorance and his credulity long made him the plaything of the salons.

Happily, Poinsinet's spirit is not confined to this unflattering trait. Gifted with a genuine talent as a versifier and as a "wordsmith" for musicians, our author enjoyed many successes, among them Les Fra-Maçonnes. Through the study of his work, and, in particular, of the specific piece we present, we have observed the happy match between prosody and music achieved by our author. This quality, rare among many writers of the time (often unaware of the judicious choice of an air charged with affect, of its reach and its complementarity with the expressiveness of the text), undoubtedly grants our author a special place in the pantheon of amateur writers of vaudevilles… While it is now possible to consult this slight trifle by Poinsinet, either on the "Théâtre classique" website, in a modernised presentation, or on the Bibliothèque nationale de France's Gallica site, in its digitised original edition, one cannot but observe, in both cases, that the piece is deprived of its fundamental ornament: the music. Built upon a stock of well-known melodies, the vaudevilles, the piece loses its supposed mawkishness when sung rather than read or merely declaimed.

Did not Alain-René Lesage, in his introduction to the edition of the Théâtre de la Foire, tell us…

But, Gentlemen Readers, you who condemn books whenever it pleases you, despite the reasons with which the Prefaces try to lull you, allow us at least, in closing, to deal with you as a Party whose case is about to be judged deals with its Judges. If it has some essential observation to make to them, it does not rely on the obligation they are under to examine everything before deciding. We warn you that our Couplets must be sung and not merely read. Regard them as the verses of Opera Divertissements: both are written upon set patterns. The singing will inspire in you an indulgent gaiety. In short, by singing them, you put something of your own into them, and we shall get off more lightly with you; whereas, if you only read them, you will find fault with everything.