ABSTRACT
In ‘Opera at home: performance and ownership in Louis XV’s France’, David Charlton discusses how opéra-comique changed when taken outside the professional theatre and into private homes. He investigates the historical traces of opéra-comique, what private performance meant, and how the operas changed when moved into private spaces, especially in aristocratic circles. The most important sources are opéra-comique music scores. Publishers made extracts or arrangements from operas available for performance at salons and homes to fulfil the need for popular entertainment, and composers took the capabilities of amateurs into account.
The periodical Recueil d’Airs … (1745–1754) encouraged the transposition of opera repertory from professional stages to private homes. When Opéra Comique was closed in 1745–1752, Recueil supplied repertory that could not be performed in public, and the more difficult Paris Opéra repertory was favoured. After the reopening, Recueil turned to the new opéra-comique repertory. Les Troqueurs (1753) for professionals had a comic parody, Le Troc, for the home market – a rare link between public and domestic theatre. Annette et Lubin (1762) was created for domestic use because of its taboo theme: pregnancy and an unmarried couple. In spite of this, it became immensely popular and spread to many European countries.
