June 28 1669 Birth of the Opera Academy
Privilege granted to Sieur Perrin for the establishment of an Academy of Opera in Music and in French Verse.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 28th June 1669
Louis by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre. To all who shall see the present Letters. Salutations. Our well-loved and loyal Pierre Perrin, Councillor in our Councils, charged with the introduction of ambassadors to the person of our very dear and beloved late Uncle, the Duke of Orleans; has most humbly brought it to our attention that over these past years, the Italians have founded various Academies, in which musical performances are given, known as Operas: that these Academies, being composed of the most excellent Musicians of the Pope and other Princes, of persons of honest Families, Nobles and Gentlemen by birth, skilled and experienced in the Art of Music, who sing there and perform the most beautiful and the most pleasing entertainments, not only in the cities of Rome, Venice and other Italian courts: but also those of the Cities and Courts of Germany and of England, where the said Academies have likewise been created in imitation of the Italians; that those who provide the funds necessary for the aforementioned Performances are reimbursed for their outlay by what is taken from the Public at the doors of the places wherein they take place; and finally, that if it pleases us to grant him Permission to establish in our Kingdom such Academies, to sing publicly therein similar Operas and Performances in Music in the French language, we hope that not only these things will contribute to our Entertainment and that of the Public; but also that our Subjects, developing a taste for Music, will naturally come to perfect their skills in one of the most noble of the Liberal Arts. To these ends, and wishing to contribute to the advancement of the Arts in our Kingdom, and to treat favourably the aforesaid Supplicant, as much in consideration of the services he has rendered to our very dear and beloved late Uncle the Duke of Orleans, as of those he has rendered to us these several years, by the composition of Musical Works sung in our Chapel and in our Chamber: We now grant and concede to the said Perrin by these present Letters signed by our hand, Permission to found in our good City of Paris, and in others of our Kingdom, an Academy composed of such number and quality of Persons as he shall judge fit, to perform and sing in Public Operas and Entertainments in Music and in French Verse, similar to those of Italy.
Enacted at saint-germain-en-laye on the twenty-eighth day of june, in the year of our lord sixteen hundred and sixty-nine, and of our reign the twenty-seventh.
signed louis, and on the envelope by the king and by COLBERT.
