The years prior to 1830 were decisive for both the clarinet as an instrument in Western art music, as well as for the many sub-genres encompassed by the term “opera,” including opera seria, opera buffa, tragédie lyrique, pasticcio, opéra comique, Singspiel, pantomime, grand opera, and others. By using the clarinet as a lens through which to view opera we can begin to understand something of the diversity of music that dates from an era before the invention of the Boehm-system instrument so popular today. Though technology now allows us to access a great wealth of this music, an incredible amount of the repertoire remains silent. No operagoer today will be ignorant of Mozart's works; history has not been so kind, however, to Henry Rowley Bishop, Nicolas Isouard, or Stefano Pavesi, even though they composed works much acclaimed and enjoyed by their contemporaries.

We can now be certain that over 200 composers wrote for the clarinet in operatic contexts. Several factors make our appreciation of this music difficult. One of the largest obstacles is the fact that, until at least 1810, most opera scores were disseminated in manuscript rather than printed form. Librettos, which were almost always printed, sur-vive in great numbers, but a composer's musical text for any given libretto could vary, since operas were routinely tailored for individual performances. This fact also complicates the establishment of a chronology for many operas. These features contrast with our present-day view of a complete, self-contained musical entity manifest in an authoritative score. In addition, the collaborative authorship of many pre-1830 operas runs counter to the value we currently place on originality. In embracing more components of flexibility than stability, opera was paradigmatic of European musical life at this time. The musicians themselves and the actual musical numbers were mobile, the former traveling in response to artistic and other opportunities, the latter enjoying substantial geographical reach in various guises and forms. This chapter focuses on Paris, London, Naples, and Vienna, in order for a manageable but still representative account of this vast repertoire to emerge.

Paris

From the middle of the eighteenth century until well into the nineteenth the political landscape of Paris, and France itself, was in a constant state of transformation.