Opera at home: Performance and ownership in eighteenth-century France

The chapter focuses on French sources and practices of making musical theatre at home in the eighteenth century. After summarising reseach on private theatres in better-off milieux, the account analyses information in a mid-century journal specifically aimed at domestic performance, published by Boivin and Leclerc, entitled 'Recueil d'airs, de contredanses, menuets et vaudevilles nouveaux chantés sur les theâtres de l'Académie Royalle de Musique et L'Opéra Comique'. Two mid-century operas for domestic performance are summarised, 'Le Troc' and 'Annette et Lubin'. The chapter concludes in the early Revolution by identifying the social contributions made by two amateur opera societies.