D'un genre et d'un théâtre à l'autre: Méhul dans les années 1790

Méhul's operatic output in the 1790s was seen at the Paris Opéra, the Opéra Comique, and other theatres: this article interrogates various aesthetic pressures and solutions found by a creative artist in a time of revolution and institutional change. Méhul's works stretched the generic boundaries of what was thought possible in opéra-comique, but other composers worked more quickly and fluently and answered the institution's need for creating audience loyalty. On one hand the decade provided unprecedented opportunities, but on the other, the pressures of rampant inflation and competition within an open market were only too obvious. Méhul's most advanced works occupied a notional space between the home of opera with spoken dialogue and the traditional all-sung genre of the Opéra. He found public success only in the following decade.