Comic opera and society in France and Northern Europe, ca. 1760–1790

The Academy Research Fellow project 'Comic opera and society in France and Northern Europe, ca. 1760–1790' examines the importance of opera for collective identities, political participation and opinion. It shows the role of music as a critical medium in societies with unequally achieved literacy. The key argument is that by uniting popular tradition with universal themes and cosmopolitan taste, French comic opera attained broad audiences all over Europe and contributed to the vulgarisation of significant political ideals, representations and concepts. By emphasising opera as a place of debate and sociability, the research brings a new dimension to the history of the public sphere. The research uses the methods of cultural and intellectual history. Its main sources are libretti and scores, reviews, correspondence and memoirs. The site of research is the Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, University of Helsinki. The funding period is 1.9.2013–31.8.2018.