Music Halls: Variety as Democracy

While cabarets offered intimate spaces for artistic experimentation, music halls provided grand-scale entertainment for mass audiences. The Folies Bergère, Olympia, and Casino de Paris competed in spectacular productions mixing every conceivable entertainment: singers, dancers, acrobats, trained animals, comedy sketches, tableau vivants, and increasingly elaborate stage effects.

The Folies Bergère's promenoir—a bar area behind the orchestra seats where men could meet prostitutes—became notorious, painted by Manet and described by countless writers. But focusing on this aspect misses the venue's broader significance. The Folies democratized spectacle, offering for a few francs entertainment rivaling opera house productions.

Yvette Guilbert revolutionized music hall performance through psychological intensity rather than physical display. Tall, thin, and unconventionally attractive, she created a persona through long black gloves and dramatic gesture. Her repertoire ranged from medieval ballads to contemporary social commentary, delivered with an acting skill that elevated popular song to art.

"I sing the stories of those who cannot sing themselves," Guilbert explained. "The laundress, the prostitute, the shop girl, the old soldier—I give them voice." Her performances attracted intellectuals who normally disdained popular entertainment. Sigmund Freud, visiting Paris, attended repeatedly, fascinated by her exploration of unconscious desires through popular song.

Mistinguett (Jeanne Bourgeois) represented another model of music hall stardom. Born in poverty, she created a persona of Parisian wit and sexuality that made her the highest-paid female entertainer in Europe. Her partnership and romance with Maurice Chevalier became music hall legend. Together they perfected the Apache dance—a violent, passionate performance that simultaneously glamorized and condemned underworld life.