L’air des bijoux L’Opéra de Banza dans Les Bijoux indiscrets

Chapter 13 of The Indiscreet Jewels presents a carnivalesque opera scene, in which the night at the opera, having once hosted the noble aesthetic polemic between the Lullists and the Ramists, gives way to the momentary triumph of the Fair and its parodies. This article comments on what this chapter reveals both of the importance of the lyric tragedy in 18th century cultural life and of its place in the wider economy of Diderot’s first novel.