Marie-Antoinette was very fond of music. A French author has just released a book and tells more about the musical tastes of the Queen.
A passion for the harp
Few women have so excited passions, prompted the most contradictory comments, given rise to so many biographies. Marie-Antoinette is not a queen like the others and we tend to rediscover her today in less known aspects. The book by author Patrick Barbier looks for the first time at the strong ties she had with music : her studies in Vienna, her discovery of the French musical world, her passion for the harp, the pianoforte and singing. , but also for opera and comic opera.
A cultural role
Through her unfailing support for shows at court or in Paris, she marked her desire to internationalize a repertoire that had hitherto been very Franco-centric. Throughout the pages, from her arrival at the age of 14 until the dark days of the Tuileries, we discover the important role she played in the cultural society of the end of the 18th century, her links with the public of theaters and with artists, as well as the influence it has had on the evolution of the repertoire and the technical progress of instruments. Throughout a cross-sectional study that unites music and the arts, but also politics, society and anecdotes from everyday life, Patrick Barbier offers a new look at the one who was the most music-loving and musical patron queen of French history.
https://www.grasset.fr/livres/marie-antoinette-et-la-musique-9782246824251
