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2005-2006 Fellows

Blake Stevens

Stanford University
Department of Music

Blake Stevens is a Ph.D. candidate in Music History at Stanford University.  His research focuses on French Baroque opera, with particular emphasis on the works of Jean-Philippe Rameau.  His dissertation examines the monologue in diverse operatic genres in mid-eighteenth century France alongside theories of the form in dramatic and operatic criticism. During the 2004-2005 academic year, he held a Georges Lurcy Foundation grant for research in France.

Project Summary

This dissertation begins as an inquiry into a discursive form: How did Rousseau, Rameau, and their contemporaries - both critics and composers - understand the operatic monologue? What position did it occupy in the various genres in the repertory of the Paris Opera in the mid-eighteenth century?  Far from being a source for mere terminological scrutiny, the monologue raises central questions about the French operatic style, Rameau’s redefinition of this style, and the legacy of Lully’s tragedies en musique during the eighteenth century.