Concert Spirituel

The series was founded to provide entertainment during the Easter fortnight and on religious holidays when the other spectacles (the Paris Opera, Comédie-Française, and Comédie-Italienne) were closed.

The programs featured a mixture of sacred choral works and virtuosic instrumental pieces, and for many years took place in a magnificently-decorated Salle des Cent Suisses (Hall of the Hundred Swiss Guards) in the Tuileries Palace.

His successors, Pierre Simart and Jean-Joseph Mouret (1728–1733), expanded the operation with a series of "French Concerts," but met the same unhappy fate.

Two new entrepreneurs, Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, and Gabriel Capperan (1748–1762), purchased the privilege, redecorated the concert hall, augmented the size of the orchestra and chorus, and set out to make their fortunes.

In 1762 a well-connected royal functionary, Antoine Dauvergne, forced Royer's widow out of the operation she had run since her husband's death in 1755.

During the Restoration (1814–1830), the Théâtre-Italien and Académie Royale de Musique gave 6 to 9 Concerts Spirituels per year, but only during Holy Week.

They became a regular feature at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire shortly after it was founded in 1828, and remained so for most of the nineteenth century.