Abstract: Following Giacomo Torelli’s arrival at the French Court and the performance of the Finta Pazza, artists and playwrights were compelled to develop closer collaborations that often led to works based on writing compromises. From 1645 to 1655, the mechanization of playhouses, along with audiences’ admiration for scene shifters, explains the emergence of a new type of performance–the “tragédie en musique”–which imposed strong constraints on writing and became a symbol of modernity and the reign of Louis XIV.
