The French Opera Facsimile Archive at the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation presents an ambitious, large-scale effort to document the history of French opera from its origins through the end of the 18th century. Conceived as a seventy-five-volume series of approximately one hundred orchestral scores, the collection offers a comprehensive panorama of a repertory that remains, in many cases, difficult to access in modern editions. Selected for both historical significance and musical value, the works represented in the archive reflect the full breadth of French operatic genres, including tragédie en musique, opéra-ballet, opéra-comique, comédie mêlée d’ariettes, and musique de scène. Together, they chart the evolution of operatic form, style, and performance practice across more than a century of cultural production. Each volume brings together high-quality facsimiles of scores and librettos drawn from the best available contemporary sources, autograph manuscripts, period copies, or first editions issued during the composer’s lifetime. These materials are accompanied by substantial scholarly apparatus, including critical introductions addressing composers, librettists, sources, and performance history; plot summaries; iconographic documentation; bibliographies; and appendices. The result is a resource that supports both close study and broader historical inquiry. The archive, housed in room 3495 of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, includes works by major figures such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, André Campra, and Étienne-Nicolas Méhul, alongside lesser-known composers whose contributions are essential to understanding the diversity of the French operatic tradition. Early volumes in the series range from Armide (1686) to late 18th-century opéras-comiques and drames lyriques, illustrating both continuity and transformation within the repertory. Ultimately, only 12 volumes were published, between 1984 and 2006. Each published volume contains facsimiles of the score and libretto; an extensive introduction dealing with the composer, librettist, opera, sources, and performance history; a plot summary, iconographic materials; bibliographies; and appendices. The facsimiles reproduce the best available contemporary source—whether autograph, contemporary copy, or first edition published during the composer’s lifetime. By assembling, editing, and contextualizing these sources, the French Opera Facsimile Archive makes a significant body of material newly available to scholars, performers, and students. It stands as both a preservation project and a tool for rediscovery, opening pathways into a repertoire that shaped European musical and theatrical culture. Explore the archive and encounter French opera as it was written, performed, and imagined in its own time. The first twelve volumes are: Destouches, André Cardinal. Issé: Pastorale héroïque (1697). Text by Antoine Houdar de La Motte. Edited by Robert Fajon. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 14. New York: Pendragon Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780918728302; ISBN-10: 0918728304 Le Sueur, Jean-François. La caverne: Drame lyrique. Libretto by P. Dercy, based on an episode in Alain René Le Sage’s Gil Blas de Santillane. Introduction by Jean Mongrédien. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 74. New York: Pendragon Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780918728333; ISBN-10: 0918728339 Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Les paladins: Comédie lyrique. Libretto attributed to Duplat de Monticourt. Introduction by R. Peter Wolf, with a biography of the composer by Graham Sadler. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 44. New York: Pendragon Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780918728630; ISBN-10: 0918728630 Méhul, Étienne Nicolas. Mélidore et Phrosine: Drame lyrique en vers. Libretto by Antoine-Vincent Arnault. Introduction by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 73. New York: Pendragon Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780918728814; ISBN-10: 0918728819 Campra, André. Le carnaval de Venise: Comédie lyrique. Libretto by Jean-François Regnard. Introduction by James R. Anthony, with a section on stage designs and costumes by Jérôme de La Gorce. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 17. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780945193074; ISBN-10: 0945193076 Salomon, Joseph-François. Médée et Jason: Tragédie en musique. Libretto by Simon-Joseph Pellegrin. Introduction by Leslie Ellen Brown. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 28. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1990.ISBN: 9780945193074; ISBN-10: 0945193076 Piccinni, Niccolò. Atys: Tragédie lyrique. Libretto by Jean-François Marmontel. Introduction by Julian Rushton. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 65. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780945193210; ISBN-10: 0945193211 Philidor, François-André Danican. Ernelinde: Tragédie lyrique. Libretto by Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poinsinet. Introduction by Julian Rushton. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 56. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780945193234; ISBN-10: 0945193238 Devienne, François. Les visitandines: Comédie mêlée d’ariettes. Libretto by Louis-Benoît Picard. Introduction by Sherwood Dudley. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 72a. New York: Pendragon Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780945193227; ISBN-10: 094519322X Delalande, Michel-Richard de. Ballet de la jeunesse. Libretto by Florent Carton Dancourt. Introduction by Barbara Coeyman. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 9. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780945193555; ISBN-10: 0945193556 Méhul, Étienne Nicolas. Stratonice: Comédie héroïque. Libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann. Introduction by M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 72b. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780918728951; ISBN-10: 0918728959 Campra, André. Tancrède: Tragédie en musique. Libretto by Antoine Danchet, based on Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata. Introduction by Antonia L. Banducci, with a section on André Campra by James R. Anthony and a section on eighteenth-century dance by Judith L. Schwartz. French Opera in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 18. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2006. ISBN: 9781576470886; ISBN-10: 1576470881 Contact information: Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016 (212) 817-1991 cmrd@gc.cuny.edu