On Redefinitions of 'Rescue opera'

The ubiquitous term 'rescue opera' (given to a later-eighteenth-century type of French opera plot) fails to pass muster on at least two counts: (1) no two published definitions include all relevant works, and (2) the phrase ignores different types of moral purpose involved in such operas, not to mention other moral actions involved, and moreover ignores eighteenth-century perceptions of such types of theatre. The essay therefore samples and tests six different published definitions, and scrutinises eighteen relevant operas between 1769 ('Le Déserteur', text by Sedaine, music by Monsigny) and 1801 (Léhéman, ou Le tour de Neustadt', text by Marsollier, music by Dalayrac). The results produce a three-part discrimination: Type 1, 'tyrant operas'; Type 2, 'exemplary action' operas; Type 3, 'judgment operas'.