The Production of Space in the ‘Tragédie En Musique’: ‘Absence Effects’ in Lully and Quinault’s ‘Atys’

Abstract

The boundaries between tragedie and tragedie en musique in seventeenth-century France traced the limits of theatrical space itself. Violent acts and supernatural manifestations proliferated in the offstage space of tragedy, entering stage space through narrative discourse in keeping within the constraints of the ‘unity of place’. By substituting scenic heterogeneity and striking visual display for this unity, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Philippe Quinault established acts of physical immediacy as a central feature of the tragedie en musique . Yet they also appropriated techniques of concealment and intimation more characteristic of spoken tragedy by fabricating unseen actions through discursive reference. Such ‘absence effects’ generate a broader field of action than spectacle alone can achieve. In Atys they create imaginary spaces for solitary expression and scenes of avowal and intimacy, revealing the impact of discourse on the production of dramatic space and lending spatial significance to the opera’s themes of power and suppressed desire.