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Jean-Étienne Despréaux
Jean-Étienne Despréaux (31 August 1748 – 26 March 1820) was a French ballet dancer, choreographer, composer, singer and playwright. Biography The son of an oboist of the orchestra of the Académie royale de musique, he made here his début in 1763, four years after his brother Claude-Jean-François. A remarkable dancer for his lightness in the high dance, he was applauded in several ballets : *1771: ''Pyramus and Thisbe'', by La Serre, Rebel and Francœur *1773: ''Les Amours de Ragonde'', by Destouches and Mouret *1774: ''Iphigénie en Aulide'', by Du Roullet and Gluck *1774: '' Sabinus'', by Chabanon and Gossec *1778: ''La Chercheuse d'esprit'', a ballet by Maximilien Gardel. He retired in 1781 with a 1,000 livres pension and married the famous ballerina Marie-Madeleine Guimard on 14 August 1789. Charles-Maurice Descombes, in his 1856 ''Histoire anecdotique du théâtre'', writes: Works Despréaux wrote several parodies of operas that Louis XV particularly ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century it became known as "the City of Light". Like London, prior to the Second World War, it was also sometimes called the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,262,544 in 2019, or about 19% of the population of France, making the region France's primate city. The Paris Region had a GDP of €739 billion ($743 billion) in 2019, which is the highest in Europe. According to the Economist Intelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippe Néricault Destouches
Philippe Néricault Destouches (9 April 1680 – 4 July 1754) was a French playwright who wrote 22 plays. Biography Destouches was born at Tours, in today's department of Indre-et-Loire. When he was nineteen years of age, he became secretary to M. de Puysieux, the French ambassador to Switzerland. In 1716 he was attached to the French embassy in London, where he remained for six years under abbé Dubois. He later contracted a marriage with Dorothea Johnston, Lancashire lady; however, the marriage was not avowed for some years. In 1727 he portrayed his domestic circumstances in ''Le Philosophe Marié'' (The Married Philosopher). Upon returning to France in 1723, he was elected to the Académie française. In 1727 he acquired considerable estates, the possession of which conferred the privileges of nobility. He spent his later years at Fortoiseau, his chateau near Melun, and died July 4, 1754. Destouches wished to revive the comedy of character as understood by Molière, but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernelinde, Princesse De Norvège
''Ernelinde, princesse de Norvège'' (''Ernelinde, Princess of Norway'') is a three-act operatic tragédie lyrique, by the French composer François-André Danican Philidor. The libretto was by Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poinsinet, after opera libretto ''La fede tradita, e vendicata''. Performance history The work was first performed on 24 November 1767 by the Paris Opera at the Salle des Machines in the Palais des Tuileries in Paris. The first version was given about eighteen times, with the final performance on 10 January 1768. Revised as ''Sandomir, prince de Dannemarck'', it was given in the same theatre on 24 January 1769. This version was also performed in Brussels in 1772. The libretto was further revised in five acts by Michel-Jean Sedaine, this time as ''Ernelinde'' with fully orchestrated recitatives by Philidor, and given at the Théâtre Gabriel at the Palace of Versailles on 11 December 1773 and in Brussels in 1774. Philidor and Sedaine revised the five-act version for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis XV Of France
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) on 15 February 1723, the kingdom was ruled by his grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time the king took sole control of the kingdom. His reign of almost 59 years (from 1715 to 1774) was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years (from 1643 to 1715). In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can also be about a real-life person (e.g. a politician), event, or movement (e.g. the French Revolution or 1960s counterculture). Literary scholar Professor Simon Dentith defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice". The literary theorist Linda Hutcheon said "parody ... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music, theater, television and film, animation, and gaming. Some parody is practiced in theater. The writer and critic John Gross observes in his ''Oxford Boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles-Maurice Descombes
Charles-Maurice Descombes, real name Jean Charles François Maurice, (26 March 1782 – 7 September 1869) was a 19th-century French playwright, theatre critic and writer. Biography François Guizot's private secretary, literary critic, founder, owner, printer, chief editor and director of the ''Le Camp-volant'' (1819-1820), the ''Journal des théâtres, de la littérature et des arts'' (1820-1823), the ''Le Coureur des spectacles'' (1842-1849), he was managing editor of the ''Courrier des théâtres, de la littérature, des arts, des modes'' from 12 April 1823 to 14 May 1842 and of the ''Nouvelles des théâtres, de la littérature et des arts'' from 13 July 1842 to 17 September 1842. An author of theoretical works on theater, he showed himself a staunch opponent of the romantic school. His plays were presented on the most important Parisian stage of his time including the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin and the Théâtre de l'Impératrice. He married Geneviève Isabell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Livre
The livre (abbreviation: £ or ₶., French for (pound)) was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor state of West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of coins and of units of account. History Origin and etymology The livre was established by Charlemagne as a unit of account equal to one pound of silver. It was subdivided into 20 ''sous'' (also ''sols''), each of 12 '' deniers''. The word ''livre'' came from the Latin word ''libra'', a Roman unit of weight and still the name of a pound in modern French, and the denier comes from the Roman denarius. This system and the denier itself served as the model for many of Europe's currencies, including the British pound, Italian lira, Spanish dinero and the Portuguese dinheiro. This first livre is known as the . Only deniers were initially minted, but debasement led to larger denominations being issued. Different mints in different regions used diff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maximilien Gardel
Maximilien Gardel (18 December 1741, in Mannheim – 11 March 1787, in Paris) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of German descent. He was the son of Claude Gardel, ballet master to King Stanisław Leszczyński, and elder brother by 17 years of Pierre Gardel. Gardel débuted at the Académie royale de Musique in Paris in 1759 and five years later became a soloist. Sharing roles as principal dancer (''danseur noble'') with Gaétan Vestris, Gardel took steps to distinguish himself from his rival in 1772: in the reprise of Rameau's ''Castor et Pollux'', he danced with neither mask nor wig (then judged unimaginable) so as not to be confused with the other dancer. In 1773 Gardel, with Jean Dauberval, became Vestris' assistant as ballet master. In 1781, Gardel took over the position (succeeding Noverre Noverre (May 2, 1998 – 2012) was an American-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. Background Noverre was a bay horse bred by Darley Stud and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François-Joseph Gossec
François-Joseph Gossec (17 January 1734 – 16 February 1829) was a French composer of operas, string quartets, symphonies, and choral works. Life and work The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exclave in the Austrian Netherlands, now an '' ancienne commune'' in the municipality of Froidchapelle, Belgium. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in Antwerp. He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken on by the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. He followed Rameau as the conductor of a private orchestra kept by the '' fermier général'' Le Riche de La Poupelinière, a wealthy amateur and patron of music. Gradually he became determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in France. Gossec's own first symphony was performed in 1754, and as conductor to the Prince de Condé's orchestra he produced several operas and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence on French music with remarkable su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Paul Guy De Chabanon
Michel-Paul Guy de Chabanon (1730, Saint-Domingue – 10 June 1792, Paris) was a violinist, composer, music theorist, and connoisseur of French literature. He was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1760) and the Académie française (1779). Biography As fiction writer Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon wrote poetry, elegies (notably that of Rameau), plays (including the tragedy of ''Éponine'') and translations (adjudged by the 19th century ''Dictionnaire Bouillet'' as having "little fidelity o the original text but not lacking in elegance and facility"). As musician and music theorist Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon was also a successful musician, playing the violin in the Concert des Amateurs under the direction of Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges. He was the author of an opera, ''Sémélé, tragédie lyrique'', and of several works on music theory, of which the most valued are his commentaries on music in the work of Aristotle . His double ide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabinus (opera)
''Sabinus'' is an opera by the composer François-Joseph Gossec. It originally took the form of a ''tragédie lyrique'' in five acts (later reduced to four). The French-language libretto, by Michel Paul Guy de Chabanon, concerns the revolt of the Gaulish nobleman Julius Sabinus and his wife Epponina (Éponine) against Roman rule. The opera had its first performance at Versailles on 4 December 1773 in the presence of King Louis XV, before transferring to the Paris Opéra on 22 February 1774. ''Sabinus'' was not a success, even in a revised four-act version, and was soon withdrawn. Assessments of the music has been mixed, but some modern critics share Gossec's view that ''Sabinus'' prefigures the revolution in operatic practice Christoph Willibald von Gluck would soon introduce to Paris. Composition Chabanon had written a play on the subject, ''Éponine'', in 1762. He later transformed it into a tragedy, ''Sabinus'', which was performed at the Comédie-Française in 1770, but audie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he gained prominence at the Habsburg court at Vienna. There he brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices for which many intellectuals had been campaigning. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' and '' Alceste'', he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian '' opera seria'' had enjoyed for much of the century. Gluck introduced more drama by using orchestral recitative and cutting the usually long da capo aria. His later operas have half the length of a typical baroque opera. Future composers like Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz and Wagner revered Gluck very highly. The strong influence of French opera encouraged Gluck to move to Paris in November 1773. Fusing the traditions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
