ABSTRACT
Those who have taken the "authentic" or "historically informed" approach to late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century performances have investigated all manner of practices on which to base their interpretations. The notion of placing the chorus at the front of the performing forces was not unique to performances given by the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire. The most practical solution to minimize the sight problems may in fact have been for the chorus to remain seated even while singing and to employ multiple conductors as necessary. The profound effect that placing the chorus in front of the orchestra has on ensemble balance, and thus on how the music is perceived by an audience, is precisely what makes placement as important as any of the more commonly considered performance-practice issues. Twentieth-century performances of the nineteenth-century repertoire that reject these traditional performance practices, then, should be interpreted only in the context of a historically uninformed, twentieth-century soundscape.
