ABSTRACT
According to Garat, the world was seized by “a kind of shock.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau was quite aware of it, was puffed up by a sense of his own importance, and immediately convinced himself that he must live up to the truth as he perceived it, live up to it in every respect, moral and physical, while he was revealing it to mankind. Jean-Jacques reached a point when he sighed for open country, and at such times he fled from Paris and his friends. During the performance, Jean-Jacques occupied the box of Monsieur de Cury, superintendent of the palace menus, over the stage and directly opposite the higher box in which sat his Majesty and Madame de Pompadour. With Le devin du village, Jean-Jacques performed the nearly impossible task of reconciling the factions among the supporters of the opera, the one group, who sat beneath the queen, sponsoring Italian music, the other, under the king, favoring French music.
