Article,
L'institution et son public: L'Opéra à Paris et à Londres au XVIIIe siècle
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 48 (6): 1519--1539 (December 1993)
Abstract
The consciousness of a public emerged unusually early in the performing arts, directly with the founding of theaters themselves. The notion of a theater's public did not necessarily involve contestation between public opinion and established authority. It was based instead on two presuppositions: that the public was the ultimate authority in taste, and that it must at all costs be entertained. But whereas in Paris the Opéra emerged as a bureaucratic structure run chiefly by musicians and highlevel civil servants, in London the King's Theatre was a commercial venture originally directed by noblemen, and after the middle of the century by professional managers. The differences between the theatres and their publics grew out of the contrasting political development in the two countries. In England open-ended party conflict contributed to a tight control of the nobility over opera; in France the vacuum of institutional political leadership gave the Opéra the opportunity ot become a creative forum within public life.
