The Comedians of the KingOpera in ancien rgime France was an eminently political art, tied to the demands of court spectacle. This was true not only of tragic opera (tragdie lyrique) but also its comic counterpart, opra comique, a theatrical form tracing its roots to the seasonal trade fairs of Paris. While historians have long privileged the genres popular origins, opra comique was brought under the protection of the French crown in 1762, thus consolidating a new venue where