Rousseau and Favart at Fontainebleau, Pergolesi at Versailles

AbstractThe French court, far from being caught off guard by the arrival of the Bouffons in 1752, had in fact been pursuing an independent policy which favoured the performance of operas since 1745. In 1749, it was its taste for spectacle that prompted the court to purchase buildings at Fontainebleau which would make it possible to house the staffs of the Royal Entertainments Department (les Menus‐Plaisirs), the workshops and stage properties departments, and to install a small rehearsal room. Three years later, Louis Bays de Cury, who was in overall charge of the Royal Entertainments Department, seized the opportunity of putting on Rousseau's Le devin du village. Two documents preserved in the French National Archives (O1 2991 and O1 2992) reveal the details not only of the extraordinary expenses incurred in the journeys to Fontainebleau, but also the particularly mixed styles of programming. They also give details of the costumes made for Le devin and other performances, which in some instances enhance our understanding of the stage practice of the Italian actors. In 1752, the passion for opera spread from Fontainebleau to Versailles, where the stage of the Salle de Comédie, located in the south wing of the palace, was subsequently enlarged in order to house not only the Bouffons, but also to permit the staging of Zélindor, roi des Silphes, a ballet by Moncrif, Rebel and Francœur. Zélindor was also staged at Versailles in 1745, but that was on a stage erected in the Grande Ecurie, which was destroyed by fire in 1751.