The Aztecs represent a complex, class-based civilization, characterized by culturally diverse practices encompassed by the Nahuatl-speaking peoples of the Basin of Mexico region and its surrounding areas. The subject of much misinformation, the clash between Aztec peoples and Spaniards, provoked by the Spanish invasion, gave rise to an immense number of written sources. Native-authored, hybrid, and Spanish-authored texts all must be carefully considered, but the translation of a still-growing number of texts in the Nahuatl language has provided insights Spanish-language texts cannot. Other kinds of evidence about the Aztecs and how their ideas and identities survived also exist, including material remains and ethnographic evidence. While the word “Aztec” is used in several ways, I use “Mexica” in this book for the peoples of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, either “Excan tlatoloyan” (Tribunal of three) or “Triple Alliance” for the expansive confederation of the late Postclassic period, and “Aztec” for the linguistically and culturally related peoples of the Basin of Mexico region to highlight the variety of ethnicities that constituted Aztec peoples. A brief early history from the time of the migrations into the Basin of Mexico to the founding of Tenochtitlan by the Mexica, guided by their deity Huitzilopochtli, also is covered.

Chapter 11 concerns the reform of opéra-comique. It reconstructs the inner logic of musical processes in comedies that were all written in reaction to Italian intermezzi. ‘Hybrid Popular Operas’ discusses the first French adaptations of intermezzi: in no case was there a simple process of translation. Pierre Baurans conceived a new genre, comédie mêlée d’ariettes. These adaptations of La serva padrona and Il maestro di musica added new music, and spoken dialogue in verse. C.-S. Favart developed this approach in La Bohémienne and Ninette à la cour, creating dialogued ensembles from solo-voice originals. Rousseau’s Le Devin du village, albeit a court work, innovated through its melodic style, its unconventional forms and its stage directions that were connected to popular practice. Les Troqueurs by Vadé and Dauvergne is then compared and contrasted with Le Devin du village. Egidio Duni’s final opera for Italy, Le Retour au village, is compared with his first for Paris, Le Peintre amoureux de son modèle: their melodic style demonstrably followed Rousseau’s example. Élie Fréron’s published review of Le Peintre amoureux proves that it was understood as a sophisticated exploration of comedic approaches. Using music, aspects of multivocality, orchestration, envoiced memory and stage co-ordination broke new ground.