| Summary: | While the reception of Italian opera in seventeenth-century France is now well known, questions remain concerning the manner of this repertoire’s acclimation to the court. Despite Mazarin’s efforts to Italianize the French musical landscape, the Italian operas presented at court between 1645 and 1662 were subject to readaptations aimed at their Frenchifying, either artistically or politically. This process took place in phases and in several steps: from 1645 to 1647 it was predominantly concerned with the operas’ text and music, while from 1654 to 1662 reworkings were more invasive, inserting elements from French musical genres, such as the ballet de court. At the same time, as the king reached the age of majority, political interference became clear, particularly after the death of Mazarin. The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay of influences and to show how the object of “Italian opera” was gradually stripped of its significant artistic overtones in response to artistic and political issues specific to the court in the pivotal period of the transfer of power from Mazarin to Louis XIV.
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