Les troqueurs

Les troqueurs (The Barterers) is a comic opera in one act by the French composer Antoine Dauvergne, first performed at the Foire Saint-Laurent in Paris on 30 July 1753 and revived by the Opéra-Comique at the Hôtel de Bourgogne on 26 February 1762. The libretto, by Jean-Joseph Vadé, is based on the tale in verse of the same name by La Fontaine. Although designated an opéra bouffon or an intermède, Les troqueurs is famous as an important work in the development of opéra comique. Since 1752, musical life in Paris had been wracked by the so-called Querelle des Bouffons, an argument between the rival partisans of French and Italian music.