Literary Salons and Musical Conversations in Seventeenth-Century France

In this chapter, I explore a selection of musical games performed at seventeenth-century French literary salons, where members of a coterie quoted recitative, parodied airs, and reimagined entire opera scenes. Though musical conversations were ephemeral, the outlines of the social practices can be reconstructed through a combined study of various types of sources. Letters crystallize conversations interwoven with opera fragments, while plays depict galant men courting women by interspersing sung quotations from contemporary operas into conversations, repurposing voguish spectacles as declarations of love. Manuscript chansonniers preserve parodies of complete opera scenes, substituting operatic characters with recognizable contemporary figures and refashioning the verse. By fostering spaces where participants ascended social hierarchies through their witty abilities as conversationalists, salon hosts transformed opera into an interactive social practice.