Louis Hurtaut Dancourt (1725 – 29 July 1801) was a French librettist, dramatist, and actor.Couvreur 2001.

Career

He was born Louis Heurteaux in Paris, and later adopted Dancourt as a pseudonym.Couvreur 2001
Louis Heurteaux dit Dancourt
a
''césar''
(French). He was unsuccessful in Paris as an actor and appeared in the French provinces in

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, and

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

, as well as outside France in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. In Berlin after 1755, he wrote the libretto of ''Le triple horoscope'', a ''

divertissement ''Divertissement'' (from the French 'diversion' or 'amusement') is used, in a similar sense to the Italian 'divertimento', for a light piece of music for a small group of players, however the French term has additional meanings. During the 17th and ...

'' with music composed by Gaultier. In 1762, with a favorable recommendation from

Charles Simon Favart Charles Simon Favart (13 November 1710 – 12 May 1792) was a French playwright and theatre director. The Salle Favart in Paris is named after him. Biography Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, a ...

, he joined the French company performing in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. His libretto for '' La rencontre imprévue, ou Les pèlerins de la Mecque'' (1763), a three-act opéra-comique, was set to music by

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 g ...

and first performed on 7 January 1764 in Vienna. Dancourt was able to mount revivals in Brussels in 1765, Bordeaux (as ''Ali et Rezia'') in 1766, and Paris (as ''Les fous de Médine, ou La rencontre imprévue'', with music arranged by

Jean-Pierre Solié Jean-Pierre Solié (also Soulier, Solier, Sollié; 1755 in Nîmes – 6 August 1812 in Paris) was a French cellist and operatic singer. He began as a tenor, but switched and became well known as a baritone. He sang most often at the Paris Opér ...

) in 1790. It was adapted and translated into Italian by Carl Friberth and inspired Haydn's ''

L'incontro improvviso ''L’incontro improvviso'' (The unexpected encounter) (Hob. XXVIII:6) is an opera in three acts by Joseph Haydn first performed at Eszterháza on 29 August 1775 to mark the four-day visit of Archduke Ferdinand, Habsburg governor of Milan and his ...

'' (1775). In addition to his career as an actor and librettist, Dancourt authored a rebuttal to

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

Letter to M. D'Alembert on Spectacles ''Letter to M. D'Alembert on Spectacles'' (french: Lettre a M. d'Alembert sur les spectacles) is a 1758 essay written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in opposition to an article published in the ''Encyclopédie'' by Jean d'Alembert, that proposed the esta ...

. Rousseau had argued against the city of Geneva building a theater, arguing that it would corrupt their egalitarian republican principles. He had also argued against women appearing in public and had attacked their virtue. In Dancourt's response, ''Dancourt, Arlequin de Berlin à M. Jean-Jacques Rousseau'', he defends the morality of the theater as well as the virtue and intellectual capacity of women, and he makes a vigorous argument in favor of women's education. He died in Paris. Other librettos include: * ''Le mariage par capitulation'', music by

Jean-Joseph Rodolphe Jean-Joseph Rodolphe (14 October 1730 – 12 August 1812) was a French horn player, violinist and composer. Life Born in Strasbourg, Rodolphe was a pupil of Jean-Marie Leclair in Paris. He travelled to Parma in 1754 and to Stuttgart in 1761, whe ...

, 1764 * ''Éscope à Cythère'', music by

Jean-Claude Trial Jean-Claude Trial (13 December 1732 - 23 June 1771) was a French composer and, with Pierre Montan Berton, co-director of the Académie Royale de Musique 1767-1771, following François Francœur and François Rebel and preceding Antoine Dauvergne a ...

, 1766 * ''Scamandre'', pastoral, music by Rozière, Dugué, and Feyseau the younger, Bordeaux, 1766 * ''Le combat nocturne, ou Les morts vivants'', music by Claude Le Petit, 1769 * ''Jephté'', music by

Henri-Joseph Rigel Henri-Joseph Rigel (9 February 1741 – 2 May 1799) was a German-born composer of the Classical era who spent most of his working life in France. He was born in Wertheim am Main where his father was musical intendant to the local prince. After an ...

, 1783 * ''Ariane, fille de Minos'', music by Rigel, 1784 * ''Le faux serment, ou La matronne de Gonesse'', music by

Prosper-Didier Deshayes Prosper-Didier Deshayes (mid 18th century – 1815) was an opera composer and dancer who lived and worked in France. In 1764 he was a balletmaster at the Comédie-Française. By 1774 he had become an assistant (''adjoint'') at the Paris Opéra ...

, 1785 * ''Atine et Zamorin, ou L'amour turc'', music by Rigel, 1786 * ''L'art d'aimer, ou L'amour au village'', music by

Louis-Sébastien Lebrun Louis-Sébastien Lebrun (10 December 1764 in Paris - 27 June 1829 idem) was a French opera singer and composer. Biography As a tenor, he wrote the music of several operas and scenes on booklets, among others, of Charles-Guillaume Étienne, A ...

, 1790 * ''Le magot de la Chine'', music by Rigel, 1800

References

* Couvreur, Manuel (2001). "Dancourt 'Ancourt Louis Hurtaut eurtaux in ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', 2nd edition, edited by

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

. London: Macmillan. (hardcover). (eBook). * Dancourt, L.H.
''L. H. Dancourt arlequin de Berlin à Mr. J. J. Rousseau''
(Amsterdam, 1759) at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

External links

Louis Heurteaux dit Dancourt
a
''césar''
(French)
''L. H. Dancourt arlequin de Berlin à Mr. J. J. Rousseau''
(Amsterdam, 1759) at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dancourt, Louis Heurteaux Writers from Paris 1725 births 1801 deaths 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights French opera librettists French male stage actors 18th-century French male actors