Opera, state, and society in the Third Republic, 1875-1914

Before the Great War, the Opera was the most exclusive salon in Paris, rendezvous of the elites of the Belle Epoque. This work explores the social and political content of the Opera and Opera-Comique repertoires as they responded to the ideological requirements of aristocratic and bourgeois audiences, to the political interests of Third Republic politicians who subsidized and supervised the opera, and to the ideas of prominent composers and librettists.