Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This article compares three French operas from the<jats:italic>fin de siècle</jats:italic>with regard to their appropriation of Gregorian chant, examining their different ideological and dramaturgical implications. In Alfred Bruneau’s<jats:italic>Le rêve</jats:italic>(1891), the use of plainchant, more or less in literal quotation and an accurate context, has often been interpreted as naturalistic. By treating sacred music as a world of its own, Bruneau refers to the French idea of Gregorian chant as ‘other’ music. In Vincent d’Indy’s<jats:italic>L’étranger</jats:italic>(1903), a quotation of<jats:italic>Ubi caritas</jats:italic>does not serve as an occasional illustration, but becomes essential as part of the leitmotif structure, thus functioning as the focal point of a religious message. Jules Massenet’s<jats:italic>Le jongleur de Notre-Dame</jats:italic>(1902) provides a third way of using music associated with history and Catholicism. In this collage of styles, plainchant is not quoted literally, but rather alluded to, offering in this ambiguity a mildly anti-clerical satire.</jats:p>