François-Adrien Boieldieu (,
also ) (16 December 1775 – 8 October 1834) was a French
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 def ...
, mainly of
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
s, often called "the French
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
".. Although his reputation is largely based upon his operas, Boieldieu composed other works and among them, his ''Harp Concerto in C'' (1800–1801) is a masterpiece of the harp repertory.
Biography

Early life
François-Adrien Boieldieu was born in
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
. His date of birth was given as December 15 by his biographer Lucien Augé de Lassus and as September 15 by some local press releases. He received his musical education first from the choirmaster and then from the organist of the
local cathedral. During the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, Rouen was one of the few towns to maintain a significant musical life and in 1793, a series of concerts was organised that featured the celebrated violinist
Pierre Rode and the tenor Pierre-Jean Garat. It was during this time that Boieldieu composed his earliest works to texts written by his father (''La fille coupable'' in 1793, followed by ''Rosalie et Mirza'' in 1795). These works brought him immediate success.
Career
During the Revolutionary period, Boieldieu left for Paris and wisely started work as a piano tuner. At this time, the
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief riva ...
was the only theatre to offer opportunities for the hybrid works of the same name, close to classic opera, but containing spoken dialogue. The most typical work of the genre was
Luigi Cherubini
Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethov ...
's ''
Médée'' (1797). Traditionally performed at the Salle Favart, Opéra-comique was staged at the Théâtre de Monsieur from 1789. In 1791, the company set up home in a new theatre, the
Théâtre Feydeau, previously reserved for the troupe of the
opera buffa
Opera buffa (, "comic opera"; : ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramma bernesc ...
.
Throughout the course of ten years, the Favart and the Feydeau companies were rivals, the Favart beefing up its repertoire of patriotic spectacles and presenting the lighter works of
Étienne Méhul, the Feydeau offering the heroic dramas of Cherubini or
Jean-François Le Sueur. In 1797, Boieldieu offered the Feydeau ''La famille suisse'' and ''L'heureuse nouvelle''. In 1798, he presented the Favart with ''Zoraime et Zulmare'', which brought him extraordinary success.
The spiritual heir of
André Grétry, Boieldieu focused on melodies that avoided too much ornamentation, set to light, but intelligent, orchestration.
Hector Berlioz
Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...
described his music as possessing "a pleasing and tasteful Parisian elegance". He was appointed as second class professor of piano in 1798. In 1800, he achieved a veritable triumph with ''
Le calife de Bagdad'' (The Caliph of Baghdad).
Following the breakdown of his marriage to the dancer
Clotilde Mafleuroy, he set off for
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
in 1804 to take up the post of court composer to the Russian tsar, where he stayed until 1810. There he composed nine operas, including ''Aline, reine de Golconde'' (1804) and ''
Les voitures versées'' (1808).
On his return to France he won back Parisian audiences with ''La jeune femme en colère'' (1811), ''
Jean de Paris'' (1812), ''Le nouveau seigneur du village'' (1813), and a dozen other works. In 1817, he succeeded Méhul as one of the forty members of the
Académie des Beaux-Arts
The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect.
Background
The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...
. He became professor of composition at the
Paris Conservatoire in 1820. He also received the
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
in 1820.
In 1825, he produced his operatic masterpiece, ''
La dame blanche'' (revived in the Salle Favart in 1997 and recorded by the conductor
Marc Minkowski). Unusual for the time, ''La dame blanche'' was based on episodes from two novels by
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
. The libretto by
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...
is built around the theme of the long-lost child fortunately recognized at a moment of peril. The style of the opera influenced ''
Lucia di Lammermoor'', ''
I puritani'', and ''
La jolie fille de Perth
''La jolie fille de Perth'' (''The Fair Maid of Perth'') is an opera in four acts by Georges Bizet (1838–1875), from a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jules Adenis, after the 1828 novel ''The Fair Maid of Perth'' by Sir W ...
''. ''La dame blanche'' was one of the early attempts to introduce the fantastic into opera.
Later life
He gradually lost the ability to speak, likely due to cancer of the larynx. The bankruptcy of the Opéra-Comique and the revolution of 1830 added to his woes. To save him from poverty,
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( ; ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian who served as President of France from 1871 to 1873. He was the second elected president and the first of the Third French Republic.
Thi ...
awarded him a state pension of 6,000 francs. On September 25, 1834, he made his last public appearance at the premiere of
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and ''Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas ''Le post ...
's ''Le chalet''. In this way, he stylishly passed on the baton to his brilliant pupil.
Boieldieu died in
Varennes-Jarcy. On 13 November 1834 his heart was interred in Rouen, in a tomb paid for by that city and designed by
Charles Isabelle, while his body was interred in
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world.
Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...
in Paris.
Personal life
The composer
(Adrien) Louis (Victor) Boïeldieu was his son with Thérèse Louise Antoinette Regnault, the French opera singer and member of the Opéra-Comique who is known under the name
Antoinette Lemonnier.
He was a freemason, initiated at the Parisian lodge ''Les Arts et l'Amitié'' ('Arts and Friendship') – belonging to the
Grand Orient of France, – as well as having been a member of the lodge 'Palestine' (in St. Petersburg), and an honorary member of the lodge 'Les Amis Réunis' ('Friends Re-united'), also in St. Petersburg.
[François-Adrien Boieldieu, ]
Online Resource
,'' available at (consulted 23 December 2010)
See also
*
List of compositions by François-Adrien Boieldieu
*
List of operas by François-Adrien Boieldieu
*
List of compositions for harp
*
Classic 100 Music of France (ABC)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boieldieu, Francois Adrien
1775 births
1834 deaths
19th-century French classical composers
19th-century French male musicians
Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Knights of the Legion of Honour
French Classical-period composers
French opera composers
French people of Norman descent
French Romantic composers
French male opera composers
Members of the Académie des beaux-arts
Musicians from Rouen