‘Le bon public de la Haye’. Local governance and the audience in the French opera in The Hague, 1820–1890

In nineteenth-century The Hague, the French opera performances in the Royal Theatre were the most important occasions during the winter season at which men and women from almost all social ranks experienced a strong sense of social cohesion in a common leisure pursuit, albeit one in which social hierarchies were clearly demarcated. This article analyses the changing social composition of the opera audience through analysis of subscription and admission records, and evaluates the changing composition of the audience in relation to changes in taste, theatre architecture and policy. Although it was almost impossible to exploit financially and was also a constant object of political, musical and moral criticism, the French opera succeeded in maintaining its central position in The Hague’s musical and social life throughout the nineteenth century. Nineteenth-century The Hague – the royal residence and government centre of the Netherlands – was a city full of music. From the cheerful summer concerts in the so-called Hague woods, the local zoo and the nearby beach of Scheveningen, to the serious winter concerts of the aristocratic society Diligentia, the diligent middle-class amateur choirs and the light-hearted pleasures of the café chantants – music formed an essential part of The Hague’s many cultural and social attractions. A prominent chronicler of The Hague’s social life declared that a key characteristic of the city’s inhabitants was their ‘melomanie’.1 Unquestionably, the favourite musical entertainment for the well-heeled citizens were the thrice-weekly opera performances of the French theatre company in the Royal Theatre, well located in the heart of the city’s aristocratic and government quarter. Part of a long tradition with its roots in the late seventeenth century, the Théâtre français had always been substantially supported and even carefully managed by the stadholder 1 J. Gram, ’s Gravenhage in onzen tijd (Amsterdam, 1893), 137; cf. J.H. Furnée, ‘Muziek voor de haute volée: Concert Diligentia en het Haagse muziekleven in de negentiende eeuw’, Holland, 40 (2008), 189–216, at 189. Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926813000199 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Universiteitsbibliotheek Nijmegen, on 18 Jan 2018 at 18:11:58, subject to the