Contribution à l'étude des coupures à travers l'exemple de Lohengrin, entre Bruxelles et la France (1870-1908)

The practice of making cuts in operatic scores is a reality of nineteenth-century musical activity that merits study in and of itself. In this article, I attempt to elucidate this practice via a study of the performances of Lohengrin at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1870, at the Eden-Théâtre in Paris in 1887, and at the Opéra de Paris in 1891 and 1908. Primarily designed to simplify the vocal parts, the cuts sometimes grew to such enormous proportions that they had an impact upon the critical reception of the work. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]