Frédéric-Auguste Blache

Jean-Baptiste Blache de Beaufort (17 May 1765, in Berlin – 24 January 1834, in Toulouse) was a German ballet dancer and ballet master active in France. A student of Deshayes, he learned the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and had what was in essence a provincial career, mainly at

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

, where he succeeded

Jean Dauberval Jean Dauberval, a.k.a. Jean D’Auberval, (born Jean Bercher in Montpellier, 19 August 1742 – Tours, 14 February 1806), was a French dancer and ballet master. He is most noted for creating the ballet, ''La fille mal gardée'', one of the m ...

. He worked briefly at the

Opéra de Paris 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 ...

, putting on ''

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( ) is an ''opera buffa'' (comic opera) in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy ' ...

'' (1806) and ''Les Fêtes de Vulcain'' (1820) there. Among his best known and most popular ballets are ''Les Meuniers'' (1787, admired by

Arthur Saint-Léon Arthur Saint-Léon (17 September 1821, in Paris – 2 September 1870) was the '' Maître de Ballet'' of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 and is famous for creating the choreography of the ballet '' Coppélia''. Biography He ...

), ''L'Amour et la Folie'', ''La Chaste Suzanne'', ''La Fille soldat'' and ''Almaviva et Rosine'' (1806). He retired to Toulouse and declined an offer from that theatre that he become its ballet master. His eldest son, Frédéric-Auguste Blache (1791- ?) revived his father's work at the

Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin () is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. History It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to hou ...

from 1816 to 1823, then at the Ambigu-Comique, where he revived the ''La Fille soldat''. Frédéric-Auguste also wrote ''Polichinelle vampire'', interpreted by Charles-François Mazurier (1823) and '' Jocko ou le Singe du Brésil'' (1825). Jean-Baptiste's younger son, Alexis-Scipion (1792-1852), was a ballet master at

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

and

St-Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,9 ...

. Musicians from Berlin 1765 births 1834 deaths 18th-century Prussian people German male ballet dancers Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to France French ballet masters French choreographers 18th-century German ballet dancers 19th-century German ballet dancers {{Ballet-bio-stub