Finally, the children of these couples were forcibly "de facto" and considered illegitimate, a condition that deprived them of many civil rights and exposed them to public mockery.
There was no way around the norm, not even for the most acclaimed stars of the stage, not even for friends and lovers of high ranks of the nobility.
The only way out consisted in solemnly declaring, in front of a priest and witnesses, one's irrevocable renunciation of the theater.
Some famous artists followed this procedure but, as they say: every law has a loophole.
Once he had renounced the theater, the King, either by decision of him or at the request of the courtiers who appreciated the artist, could order that the renouncer present himself in the theater and his career continued. Besides, could he have disobeyed the King?
The arrows of the Church, however, were not the only ones to strike the actors, even the civil laws excluded them: they could not enter the army or exercise public employment, they could not testify in the trials and, even, if some belonging to a noble profession were married to a theatrical player, he would have been struck out of the ranks.
Although many nobles and noblewomen vied to have the most famous actors / actresses and dancers at their tables, the common morality of some continued to think that having them at their receptions was scandalous, much more than having them between the sheets of their bed. .
However, there were not a few nobles who, challenging the family and risking disinheritance, became actors, perhaps hiding behind a stage name that would have at least contributed to not dishonoring the family coat of arms. However, it must be said that the actors did nothing to improve the social perception of the category, quite the opposite!
It had come to the point that an abbot, a clergyman but evidently broad-minded (like many religious of the time who imitated the womanizer Richelieu) came to argue that if a singer had only three lovers at the same time, it was acceptable as one. He kept one for pleasure, the second for honor, and the third for money.
Intrigues and rivalries were the order of the day, as were the excesses in the behavior of daily life, without counting the repeated sentimental events (often mercenary) that made the fortune of the most valid and aesthetically appreciable artists and artists, bringing their lovers of financial ruin due to the fabulous gifts that they demanded: carriages complete with horses, jewels, cash to pay their debts up to entire palaces obtained more on the fabrics of an alcove than among those of the curtains.
The litigation in the theater companies was extremely high and an assignment of a part to the rival was enough to unleash the wrath of the diva who believed herself cheated of her right to excel.
The clashes could result in simple bickering, in loud quarrels (even on stage, during shows, with exchanges of punches on the head and hair pulling), in intrigues and conspiracies to damage opponents, in jokes and teasing (such as defecating in the box where the actresses kept their false beauty marks and the necessities for tricks) but also in real duels, such as the sword fight between the famous actor Dazincourt and the younger Dangeville or the gun duel between the singer Beaumesnil and the dancer Theodore.
The numerous publications that circulated in Paris, sold by street vendors but also in theaters, threw themselves to death on all the events involving the most famous theatrical characters: the gossip about private lives and professional quarrels was certainly not invented by us today.
The public of "fans" of the most famous artists was not satisfied with attending their performances in the theater, they also wanted to "take them home" and those who could not do it by inviting them in person were content to buy the Sèvres porcelain figurines or portraits. which were produced and marketed in abundance.
It was the practice that famous actresses and actors, singers and dancers had rich lovers, both noble and belonging to the big bourgeoisie, and it was not uncommon the case of multiple contemporary relationships, where lovers knew they were in close relations but generally did not they worried too much.
In this 18th century which reminds us of our times in so many aspects, it even went so far as to publish in the gazettes widespread in Paris, such as the Espion anglais (the English spy), lists of the most famous prostitutes in the city, which seems to counted from 40,000 to 60,000, according to some sources.
Among these, of a very different level from the tens of thousands of poor girls whose only way to make ends meet in the sale of their bodies for little money, there were famous actresses (such as M.lle Clairon, registered mail thanks to her extra-theatrical skills, which debuted in the theater thanks to a decree of the Duke of Gesvres who in 1743 ordered the Comédie-Francaise to "immediately make her debut ... in the role she will have chosen"), singers (such as M.lle Arnould, of the which we will see later on the qualities of the spirit) and dancers (such as M.lle Guimard), all enrolled in the roles of the Comédie Francaise or the Académie Royale de Musique, better known as Opéra.
Towards the end of the century, when the laws against social promiscuity in aristocratic marriages became more relaxed, some artists even managed to get married by aristocrats, thus obtaining a noble title to be placed before their name: the singer Levasseur became the Countess Mercy-Argenteau, D'Oligny became Marchesa Du Doyer, Saint-Huberty became Countess D'Entraigues.
Despite the negative moral vision, general but superficial in the upper classes, towards the theater and the theatricals, in the 18th century the love for that world was rampant: everywhere people acted, danced and sang, from Versailles to the great Parisian noble palaces, from the houses of the bourgeoisie to the convents.
Over the course of the century, those who could afford it did not deprive themselves, inside their palace or castle, of a private theater, often of extreme luxury and with hundreds of seats, where all the most illustrious coats of arms of France gathered together. to the high ecclesiastical offices and the most fashionable intellectuals who often, like Rousseau, Corneille and Voltaire, wrote texts for the theater.
In these private theaters, not excluding that of the Court in Versailles, the aristocrats also performed and, in some cases, demonstrating certainly remarkable vocal and recitative talents.
The three Royal Theaters
It all began with Louis XIV, the Sun King, who, inspired by the Italian Academies existing since the Renaissance, decided to establish in France, in 1661, the Royal Dance Academy (an art he practiced being himself the protagonist of several ballets that he staged in Versailles for the Court, with the music of his resident musician, the Florentine Giovan Battista Lulli, who with the well-known French chauvinism was immediately naturalized and renamed Jean-Baptiste Lully).
This was followed in 1669 by the Royal Academy of Music, later simply called Opéra.
The third protagonist of the Maison du Roi, the House of the King, which was entrusted with the entertainment of His Majesty, dates back to 1680 with the foundation of the theater company of the Comédie-Francaise, the comedians of the King to whom the actors of the Comédie were counterbalanced. Italienne (and what battles arose to defend French privileges from the cravings of Italian comedians).
Authors and Actors
As also Wolfgang Mozart was able to verify through his own experience on the occasion of the composition and rehearsal of his melodramas, the actors (and above all the prima donna) could play the good and the bad ordeal by refusing to sing the arias that in their opinion did not enhance their voices or by asking to add new ones to better highlight their role in to the detriment of / the rival etc.