Albert Grisar (25 December 1808 – 15 June 1869) was a Belgian composer, mainly active in Paris.

Career

Born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, Grisar's family had intended for him to pursue a tradesman's career, but he defied their wishes to devote himself to music. He studied in Antwerp with Joseph Janssens, in Paris under

Anton Reicha Anton (Antonín, Antoine) Joseph Reicha (Rejcha) (26 February 1770 – 28 May 1836) was a Czech-born, Bavarian-educated, later naturalization, naturalized French composer and music theorist. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Ludwig van Be ...

, and in the mid-1840s in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

with

Saverio Mercadante Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante (baptised 17 September 179517 December 1870) was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti or Gioa ...

. Grisar was a successful

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

composer, first winning success in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

in 1833 and in Paris later in the decade. He collaborated with Flotow on ''L'Eau merveilleuse'' (1839), with Flotow and Auguste Pilati in ''Le Naufrage de la Méduse'' (1839), and with François-Adrien Boieldieu on ''L'Opéra à la cour'' (1840). When he received a grant from the Belgian government in 1840 to study music of Belgian composers in Italy, he instead used his time in Rome and Naples to study compositional techniques of the comic opera. His Parisian works of the late 1840s and early 1850s were particularly well received by audiences. He died in Asnières near Paris.

Honours

* Knight of the Order of Leopold.Almanach royal officiel de Belgique/1841

Operas

* ''Le Mariage impossible'', premiere: Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels 1833 * ''Sarah, ou L'Orpheline de Glencoé'', premiere:

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 ...

, Paris 1836 * ''L'An mil'', premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris 1837 * ''Lady Melvil / Le Joallier de Saint-James'', premiere: Théâtre de la Renaissance, Paris 1838 * ''La Suisse à Trianon'', Paris 1838 * ''L'Eau merveilleuse'', premiere: Théâtre de la Renaissance, Paris 1839 * ''Le Naufrage de la Méduse'', premiere: Théâtre de la Renaissance, Paris, 31 May 1839 * ''Les Travestissements'', Paris 1839 * ''Gille ravisseur'', premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris 1848 * ''Les Porcherons'', premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris 1850 * ''Bonsoir, monsieur Pantalon'', premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris 1851 * ''Le Carillonneur de Bruges'', premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris 1852 * ''Les Amours du diable'' (libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges), premiere:

Théâtre Lyrique The Théâtre Lyrique () was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century (the other three being the Paris Opera, Opéra, the Opéra-Comique, and the Théâtre-Italien (1801–1878), Théâtre-Italien). ...

, Paris 1853 * ''Le Chien du jardinier'', premiere: Opéra-Comique, Paris 1855 * ''Voyage autour de ma chambre'', Paris 1859 * ''La Chatte merveilleuse'' (libretto by Philippe Dumanoir and Adolphe d'Ennery), premiere: Théâtre Lyrique, Paris 1862 * ''Les Bégaiements d'amour'', Paris 1864 * ''Les Douze Innocentes'', Paris 1865 * ''Le Procès'', 1867

References

* Fétis, F.-J.: ''Biographie universelle des musiciens'', supplement published under the direction of Arthur Pougin
vol. 1, pp. 423–424
(Paris: Didot, 1878). * Mercier, Philippe: "Grisar, Albert", in ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', edited by

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

(London: Macmillan, 1992), . * Pougin, Arthur: ''Albert Grisar: Étude artistique'' (Paris: Librairie de L. Hachette, 1870)
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References

External links

* 1808 births 1869 deaths 19th-century Belgian classical composers 19th-century Belgian male musicians Belgian expatriates in France Belgian opera composers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Belgian male opera composers Musicians from Antwerp Pupils of Anton Reicha Belgian Romantic composers {{Belgium-composer-stub