This article argues that one cannot speak of the performances of La finta pazza in Paris in 1645/46 as the beginnings of operatic history in France. Although the piece was clearly an opera on the Venitian stage, its Parisian performances belong to the tradition of the commedia dell’arte. They have nothing to do with Mazarin’s plans for performing Italian opera for the French court, first realized with Rossi’s L’Orfeo in 1647.
