Introduction

Verdi's publisher, Léon Escudier, nicknamed the Paris Opéra the ‘grande boutique’ (‘big shop’, but with pejorative undertones), an appellation that the composer cheerfully adopted. Of all the Italian composers who wrote for the Opéra during this period, Verdi had the most mixed feelings about the institution and the requirements for success. Yet even he felt obliged, at times against his inclination, to try to meet the challenge, and even after he no longer wished to compose for it, wanted to stay up-to-date about developments there.

Why was Paris, and specifically this theatre, such a magnet for musiciens transalpins, ‘musicians from the other side of the Alps’, as the French called them? Even before Spontini's arrival in 1803 (see Chapter 1) Antonio Sacchini and Antonio Salieri scored major triumphs in Paris before the Revolution; several of their works – notably Dardanus (1784) and Ædipe à Colone (1786) by the former, and Tarare (1787) by the latter – were performed well into the nineteenth century. Success in Paris after the Restoration of 1815 brought substantial financial advantages. Composers were assured of continuing honoraria for every performance at the Opéra (unlike the situation in Italy – not yet politically united – during the first half of the nineteenth century). The thriving music publishing industry provided another important source of revenue, since resident composers’ rights were protected by law. The sheer size of the Opéra's establishment was an attraction and a challenge. Finally, Paris was the literary capital of Europe.