The Paris Opera and newspapers just before World War One
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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Paris Opera enjoyed good relationships with the main newspapers. Some of its staff members had previously been journalists or used to write music reviews. The theater published some notes about new productions or important singers in order to give its public a preview of shows to come. Letters from composers, singers, and foreign conductors were divulged. Some members of staff used their relations with their former colleagues and either wrote articles praising the Opera and the new works themselves or asked another reviewer to write a paper including photographs supplied by the theater. Despise this collusion between the Opera and newspapers, the music critics still maintained a form of independence, but tuned their writings in accordance with the main line of their papers or magazines. This equilibrium came to an end when the directors of the Opera made known their anger at reading the bad reviews published by Comoedia. This newspaper relentlessly attacked the theater and tried to bring about the dismissal of the two directors. The consequences, however, were dire for Comoedia. Having been prosecuted, its staff decided to tone down the reviews and recruited another journalist.
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