Jean-Étienne Despréaux (; 31 August 1748 – 26 March 1820) was a French

ballet dancer A ballet dancer is a person who practices the Art (skill), art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. B ...

, choreographer,

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 ...

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Biography

The son of an

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pres ...

of the orchestra of the

Académie royale de musique 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 ...

, he made here his début in 1763, four years after his brother Claude-Jean-François. A remarkable dancer for his lightness in the high dance, he was applauded in several

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

s : *1771: ''

Pyramus and Thisbe In Greek mythology, Pyramus and Thisbe () are a pair of ill-fated lovers from Babylon, whose story is best known from Ovid's narrative poem ''Metamorphoses''. The tragic myth has been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe's parents, drive ...

'', by

La Serre La Serre (; ) is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France. Population The GSSP Golden Spike for the Tournaisian is in La Serre, with the first appearance of the conodont ''Siphonodella sulcata''. In 2006 it was discovered ...

Rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...

and Francœur *1773: ''Les Amours de Ragonde'', by Destouches and Mouret *1774: ''

Iphigénie en Aulide ''Iphigénie en Aulide'' (''Iphigeneia in Aulis (ancient Greece), Aulis'') is an opera in three acts by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the first work he wrote for the Paris stage. The libretto was written by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet ...

'', by Du Roullet and

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 at ...

*1774: '' Sabinus'', by Chabanon and Gossec *1778: ''La Chercheuse d'esprit'', a

by Maximilien Gardel. He retired in 1781 with a 1,000

livres Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * F ...

pension and married the famous ballerina Marie-Madeleine Guimard on 14 August 1789.

Charles-Maurice Descombes Charles-Maurice Descombes, real name Jean Charles François Maurice, (26 March 1782 – 7 September 1869) was a 19th-century French playwright, theatre critic and writer. Biography François Guizot's private secretary, literary critic, founde ...

, in his 1856 ''Histoire anecdotique du théâtre'', writes:

Works

Despréaux wrote several

parodies A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satirical or ironic imitation. Often its subject is an original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, etc), but a parody can als ...

of operas that

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...

particularly appreciated. * 1777: ''Berlingue'', parody of '' Ernelinde'' by Sedaine and

Philidor Philidor (''Filidor'') or Danican Philidor was a family of musicians that served as court musicians to the French kings. The original name of the family was Danican (D'Anican) and was of Scottish origin (Duncan). Philidor was a later addition to t ...

* 1778: ''Momie'', parody of ''

'' by

* 1778: ''Romans'', parody of ''

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

'' by

Quinault Quinault may refer to: * Quinault people, an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast **Quinault Indian Nation, a federally recognized tribe ** Quinault language, their language People * Quinault family of actors, including: * Jean-Bapt ...

and

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 ...

* 1780: ''Christophe et Pierre-Luc'', parody of ''

Castor et Pollux ''Castor et Pollux'' (''Castor and Pollux'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 by the Académie royale de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard ...

'' by Gentil Bernard and

Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; ; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera a ...

* 1786: ''Syncope, reine de Mic-Mac'', parody of ''Pénélope'' by Cimarosa * 1801: ''Jenesaiki, ou les Exaltés de Charenton'', parody of ''Béniovski ou les Exilés du Kamchattka'' by Boieldieu * 1801: ''La Tragédie au vaudeville, en attendant le vaudeville à la tragédie'', parody of ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

'' by

Jean-François Ducis Jean-François Ducis (; 22 August 173331 March 1816) was a French dramatist and adapter of Shakespeare. Biography Ducis was born in Versailles, one of ten children. His father, Pierre Ducis, originally from Savoy, was a linen draper at Versai ...

He also made the opening prologue for the

Théâtre de la Reine The Théâtre de la Reine (Queen's Theater) ou Théâtre du Trianon (Trianon Theater) is a theater built for Queen Marie-Antoinette by the architect Richard Mique from June 1778 to July 1779. It is located in the grounds of the Petit Trianon, i ...

in May 1780. But he is mostly known as the author of ''Mes passe-temps : chansons, suivies de l'Art de la danse, poème en quatre chants, calqué sur lArt poétique'' de Boileau Despréaux'',Paris, Defrelle, Petit, 1806, 2 vol. ; 2e éd. Paris, l'Auteur, Petit, 1807 ; 3e éd. Paris, Crapelet, 1809. seminal work for

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

considered as an art in itself, and not as mere entertainment.

References

Bibliography

* Jacques-Alphonse Mahul, ''Annuaire nécrologique, ou Supplément annuel et continuation de toutes les biographies ou dictionnaires historiques'', 1e année, 1820, Paris : Baudoin , 1821, (p. 82–83

* Émile Campardon, ''L’Académie royale de musique au XVIIIe'', Paris, Berger-Levrault et C^ie, 1884, vol. I, (p. 245–247).

External links

Jean-Étienne Despréaux
on Data.bnf.fr
His plays
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Despreaux, Jean-Etienne 1748 births 1820 deaths Musicians from Paris French male singers 18th-century French ballet dancers French male ballet dancers 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights 18th-century French poets 18th-century French male writers