Abstract
Since the publication of Jane Fulcher’s The Nation’s Image in 1987, there has been growing interest in exploring the appeal of French grand opera. This has generally taken the approach of grounding the works in their political context (Fulcher) or, more recently, their social setting. A more tentative strand of interest in situating grand opera in its contemporary theatrical context and in examining other lyric genres produced in Paris in the 1820s and ’30s in their own right (Sala 1995; Wild 1987; Hibberd 2001) has encouraged a reevaluation of what has been perceived as the merely “sensational” and a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the musical and visual dimensions of drama. Smith’s book is at once a comparative study of ballet and opera and a long overdue history of ballet-pantomime that presents basic information, such as the sorts of plots, characters, dancing techniques, and musical styles common to the genre.