Boieldieu, François-Adrien

COMPOSER (FRANCE)
BORN 16 Dec 1775, Rouen, Seine-Maritime - DIED 8 Oct 1834, Varennes-Jarcy, Essone
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 11 (Moiroux: X, 21))

Boieldieu was musically educated by Charles Broche, the organist of Rouen Cathedral. When he was eighteen year hold he wrote two musical parts that were received well. In the course of the French Revolution he went to Paris and thetre he worked s a piano tuner. His comical operas "La Famille suisse" and "L'Heureuse Nouvelle" were staged at the Feydeau theatre in 1797. In 1798 "Zoraime et Zuimare" was performed at the Salle Favart with great success. "Le Calife de Bagdad" was first performed at the Opéra-Comique on 16 September 1800 and earned him another success.

In 1802 he married the dancer Clotilde Mafleurai. Marital problems cuased him to move to St. Petersburg in 1803. There he worked until 1810 as a composer at the imperial court. In 1817 he became Professor for Composition at the Conservatoire in Paris. His last succesful opera was "La Dame Blanche" (1825). On 23 January he married his companion, the singer Jenny Philis-Bertin. His first wife Clotilde had died by that time. His opera "Lex Deux Nuits" (1829) failed, but it Richard Wagner wrote enthousiastically about it.

Boieldieu wrote over 40 operas and vaudevilles. He died in his country house in Varennes-Jarcy in 1834 and was buried at Père Lachaise in Paris. His heart was buried at the Cimetière Monumental in Rouen.

Related persons
• was teacher of Adam, Adolphe-Charles
• is grandparent of Boieldieu, Louise
• was painted by Boilly, Louis-Léopold
• was teacher of Zimmermann, Pierre

Events
16/9/1800Premiere of Boieldieu's "Le Calife de Bagdad" at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. The librett owas written by Claude de Saint-Just and the comic opera was dedicated to the painter Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld. Performers were Jean Elleviou, Alexandrine-Marie-Agathe Gavaudan-Ducamel and Louise Rose Dugazon. [Dugazon, Rose]

Images

The grave of François-Adrien Boieldieu at Père Lachaise, Paris.
Picture by Androom (19 Nov 2006)

 

Sources
• Hellwig, Gerhard, Der Neue Opern-, Operetten- und Musical Führer, Aktualiseerte Neuauflage, Gomdrom, Bindlag, 1994


Boieldieu, Louise

Published: 21 Oct 2007
Last update: 25 Feb 2023