La belle Arsène

La belle Arsène (1773) is a French opéra comique by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny to a libretto by Charles-Simon Favart.

The opera was first performed on 6 November 1773 in three acts by the Comédiens Italiens ordinaires du Roi before Louis XV at the Palace of Fontainebleau.

This version was published in 1773 as comédie-féerie en trois actes, mêlée d'ariettes.

A revised version in 4 acts was presented on 14 August 1775 by the same company at their theatre in Paris, the Hôtel de Bourgogne.

"[1][2] The opera was the first to have excerpts sung in the air - thanks to Élisabeth Thible, the first woman aeronaut, who, dressed as Minerva, sung impromptu arias from the opera to an audience below her including Gustav III, from a Montgolfier balloon in 1784.

Painting by Pehr Hilleström which shows act III, scene VIII from the Opera. Performed in Stockholm in 1779.