Étienne-Joseph Floquet
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Étienne-Joseph Floquet (23 November 174810 May 1785) was a French composer, mainly of operas. He was born in
Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...
and began his career by writing church music, before moving to Paris in 1767.Rushton There, Floquet made a name for himself with the
requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...
he wrote for the funeral of the composer
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (, 25 December 1711 (baptised) – 8 October 1772), also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, was a French violinist and composer. He was a younger contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau and enjoyed great succe ...
in 1772.Dratwicki, ''Antoine Dauvergne'', p. 297 Floquet's first work for the
Paris Opéra 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 kn ...
, the ''ballet héroïque'' ''L'union de l'amour et les arts,'' was a triumph, enjoying 60 performances between its premiere in September 1773 and January 1774. The audience at the premiere was so enthusiastic that the performance had to be stopped several times because of the applause and, at the final curtain, Floquet was presented on stage, the first composer in the history of the Paris Opéra to enjoy such an honour. However, the arrival of the German composer
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 (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...
in Paris later that year changed French musical taste and Floquet's style became unfashionable. After the failure of his next opera, ''Azolan'', Floquet decided to travel to Italy to perfect his musical education. There he studied composition under Nicola Sala in Naples and
counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...
under Padre Martini in Bologna, where he turned momentarily back to church music composing a
Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...
. Floquet returned to France in 1777 to find the Parisian public was now split between the supporters of Gluck and the partisans of the Italian
Niccolò Piccinni Niccolò Piccinni (; 16 January 1728 – 7 May 1800) was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the ...
. There was little demand for operas by native French composers and Floquet struggled to have his ''
tragédie lyrique This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most co ...
'' ''
Hellé ''Hellé'' (''Helle'') is an opera by the French composer Étienne-Joseph Floquet, first performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) on 5 January 1779. It takes the form of a tragédie lyrique in three acts. The libretto, by Pi ...
'' staged. When it eventually appeared in 1779, it was booed, despite Floquet's attempt to imitate the style of Piccinni, and ran for only three performances. Floquet had more success with the lighter ''Le seigneur bienfaisant'' and ''La nouvelle Omphale''. He turned to a tragic subject once more when he produced a new musical score for
Philippe Quinault Philippe Quinault (; 3 June 1635 – 26 November 1688) was a French dramatist and librettist. Biography Quinault was born in Paris. He was educated by the liberality of François Tristan l'Hermite, the author of ''Marianne''. Quinault's fi ...
's libretto '' Alceste'', originally set by
Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( – 22 March 1687) was a French composer, dancer and instrumentalist of Italian birth, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court o ...
in 1674. Floquet's version was rehearsed but then rejected by the Paris Opéra. The composer was in poor health and the disappointment at his failure to have ''Alceste'' staged was said to have contributed to his early death soon afterwards. He left two unfinished operas, one of which, the "fairyland opera" ('' opéra féerie'') ''Alcindor'', was completed by Nicolas Dezède and given its unsuccessful première on 17 April 1787.Rushton. For information about the premiere of ''Alcindor'' (attributed only to Dezède), cf. Pitou, p. 21.


Operas


Notes and references


Sources

*
David J. Buch David Joseph Buch (born 1950) is an American musicologist. Life and career Buch was born in Detroit and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He received his PhD in Music Histo ...
, ''Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests: The Supernatural in Eighteenth-Century Musical Theater'' (University of Chicago Press, 2009) * Félix Clément and Pierre Larousse ''Dictionnaire des opéras'' (Paris, 1881
Available online at Open Library
* , ''Antoine Dauvergne (1713—1797): une carrière tourmentée dans la France musicale des Lumières'', Editions Mardaga, 2011. *Benoît Dratwicki, "Foreigners at the Académie Royale de Musique" in Antonio Sacchini, ''Renaud'', Madrid, Ediciones Singulares, 2013 (book accompanying the complete recording conducted by
Christophe Rousset Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conducting, conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on Authentic performance, period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and ...
). * Buford Norman ''Quinault, librettiste de Lully: le poète des grâces'', Editions Madraga, 2009. *Spire Pitou, ''The Paris Opéra. An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers – Rococo and Romantic, 1715–1815'', Westport/London, Greenwood Press, 1985. *
Julian Rushton Julian Gordon Rushton (born 22 May 1941) is an English musicologist, born in Cambridge. He has contributed the entry on Mozart in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and several other articles in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians' ...
, article "Floquet, Étienne-Joseph" 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 t ...
'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Floquet, Etienne-Joseph French Classical-period composers French opera composers French male opera composers Musicians from Aix-en-Provence 1748 births 1785 deaths 18th-century French classical composers 18th-century French male musicians