Jean-Étienne Despréaux (31 August 1748 – 26 March 1820) was a French

ballet dancer A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on yea ...

, choreographer,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Biography

The son of an

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pres ...

of the orchestra of the

Académie royale de musique The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

, 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

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

s : *1771: ''

Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their r ...

'', by

La Serre La Serre (; oc, La Sèrra) is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France. Population The GSSP Golden Spike for the Tournaisian is in La Serre, with the first appearance of the conodont '' Siphonodella sulcata''. In 2006 it wa ...

Rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; s ...

and Francœur *1773: ''Les Amours de Ragonde'', by Destouches and Mouret *1774: ''

Iphigénie en Aulide ''Iphigénie en Aulide'' (''Iphigeneia in Aulis'') is an opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the first work he wrote for the Paris stage. The libretto was written by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and was based on Jean ...

'', by Du Roullet and

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 (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the ...

*1774: '' Sabinus'', by Chabanon and Gossec *1778: ''La Chercheuse d'esprit'', a

by Maximilien Gardel. He retired in 1781 with a 1,000

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

pension and married the famous ballerina

Marie-Madeleine Guimard Marie-Madeleine Guimard (27 December 1743 — 4 May 1816) was a French ballerina who dominated the Parisian stage during the reign of Louis XVI. For twenty-five years she was the star of the Paris Opera. She made herself even more famous by her lo ...

on 14 August 1789. Charles-Maurice Descombes, in his 1856 ''Histoire anecdotique du théâtre'', writes:

Works

Despréaux wrote several

parodies 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 sub ...

of operas that

Louis XV 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 reache ...

particularly appreciated. * 1777: ''Berlingue'', parody of '' Ernelinde'' by Sedaine and

Philidor Philidor (''Filidor'') or Danican Philidor was a family of musicians that served as court musicians to the French kings. The original name of the family was Danican (D'Anican) and was of Scottish origin (Duncan). Philidor was a later addition to t ...

* 1778: ''Momie'', parody of ''

'' by

* 1778: ''Romans'', parody of ''

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

'' by

Quinault Quinault may refer to: * Quinault people, an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast **Quinault Indian Nation, a federally recognized tribe **Quinault language, their language People * Quinault family of actors, including * Jean-Baptis ...

and

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

* 1780: ''Christophe et Pierre-Luc'', parody of ''

Castor et Pollux ''Castor et Pollux'' (''Castor and Pollux'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 by the Académie royale de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard, ...

'' by Gentil Bernard and

Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera an ...

* 1786: ''Syncope, reine de Mic-Mac'', parody of ''Pénélope'' by Cimarosa * 1801: ''Jenesaiki, ou les Exaltés de Charenton'', parody of ''Béniovski ou les Exilés du Kamchattka'' by Boieldieu * 1801: ''La Tragédie au vaudeville, en attendant le vaudeville à la tragédie'', parody of ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'' by

Jean-François Ducis Jean-François Ducis (; 22 August 173331 March 1816) was a French dramatist and adapter of Shakespeare. Biography Ducis was born in Versailles, one of ten children. His father, Pierre Ducis, originally from Savoy, was a linen draper at Versa ...

He also made the opening prologue for the Théâtre de la Reine in May 1780. But he is mostly known as the author of ''Mes passe-temps : chansons, suivies de l'Art de la danse, poème en quatre chants, calqué sur lArt poétique'' de Boileau Despréaux'',Paris, Defrelle, Petit, 1806, 2 vol. ; 2e éd. Paris, l'Auteur, Petit, 1807 ; 3e éd. Paris, Crapelet, 1809. seminal work for

choreography Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design ...

considered as an art in itself, and not as mere entertainment.

References

Bibliography

* Jacques-Alphonse Mahul, ''Annuaire nécrologique, ou Supplément annuel et continuation de toutes les biographies ou dictionnaires historiques'', 1e année, 1820, Paris : Baudoin , 1821, (p. 82–83

*

Émile Campardon Émile Campardon (18 July 1837 – 23 February 1915) was a French historian, archivist and writer. He was an archivist and head of the judicial section of the Archives nationales de France from 1857 to 1908, and the author of numerous books. At th ...

, ''L’Académie royale de musique au XVIIIe'', Paris, Berger-Levrault et C^ie, 1884, vol. I, (p. 245–247).

External links

Jean-Étienne Despréaux
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Despreaux, Jean-Etienne 1748 births 1820 deaths Musicians from Paris French male singers 18th-century French ballet dancers French male ballet dancers 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights 18th-century French poets 18th-century French male writers