Olivia Bloechl Musical Instruction Opera sku-56090051

Opera and the Political Imaginary in Old Regime France is a hardcover by Olivia Bloechl in Musical Instruction. It examines serious French opera from its origins in the 1670s through the French Revolution. Bloechl looks beyond the genre's ties to absolute monarchy to consider how staged conflicts about public conduct, morality, security and law portrayed government.

She traces political relations among characters and choruses in scenes of mourning, confession, punishment and pardoning, including how lovers, magicians and artists could hold powers usually associated with rulers and gods. Her reading finds a collective political experience that sometimes worked against ancien régime absolutism within a conservative genre. SKU: sku-56090051.