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The Race for Robert and Other Rivalries: Negotiating the Local and (Inter)National in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans

2017; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 29; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0954586717000064

1474-0621

Charlotte Bentley,

Music History and Culture

Abstract Grand opéra occupied a prominent but fraught position in the life of New Orleans in the 1830s, where it became a focus for debates surrounding contemporary cultural and political issues. In 1835, the city’s rival theatres – one francophone, the other anglophone – raced to give the first performance of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable , bringing tensions between their respective communities to a head. This article explores Robert ’s arrival in New Orleans, arguing that the discourses that grew up first around this work and later Les Huguenots provided a means through which opposing linguistic and cultural factions within the city could negotiate their local, national and international identities.