Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817)

Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny was born in Fauquembergues, a small town in the Pas-de-Calais between Saint-Omer and Montreuil, on October 17, 1729. He was the first of seven children of Nicolas Monsigny and Marie-Antoinette Dufresne. He studied at the Jesuit college of Saint-Omer where one of the Jesuits, Father Mollien, taught him how to play the violin. In 1748, the death of Monsigny’s father forced him to find a position to help his widowed mother and his siblings. He went to Paris and, in 1749, entered the service of M. de Saint-Julien, the receiver general of the French Clergy. However, he pursued his musical studies with Pietro Gianotti, a double bass player of the Paris Opera, student of Jean-Philippe Rameau and author of a Guide du compositeur published in 1759. His first opéra-comique, Les Aveux indiscrets (The Indiscreet Confessions), was performed at the fair of Saint-Germain on February 7, 1759. It was followed by two more successes: Le Maître en Droit (The Master in Law) in 1760 and Le Cadi dupé (The Duped Cadi) in 1761. At about that time he met Jean-Michel Sedaine, the librettist of Philidor, and in 1761 they produced a charming opéra-comique in one act, On ne s’avise jamais de tout (One Can Never Be Aware of Everything). This was the beginning of a very fruitful collaboration which produced, in 1762, Le Roi et le fermier (The King and the Farmer) based on Robert Dodsley’s The King and the Miller of Mansfield; in 1764, Rose et Colas; and in 1766, Aline, Reine de Golconde. In 1768, Monsigny joined the household of the Duke of Orleans and in 1769 produced Le Déserteur, again on a libretto of Sedaine, which was an immediate and lasting success. Monsigny composed two more works on librettos by Sedaine: Le Faucon (The Falcon), in 1771, which was not very successful, and Felix ou l’Enfant trouvé, in 1777, which is arguably his best work. In between, in 1775, he produced his one opéra-comique to a libretto by Charles Simon Favart, La Belle Arsène. Having lost the sight in one eye due to a cataract and fearing blindness, he stopped composing for the remaining forty years of his life and died in Paris on January 14, 1817.

Jean-Michel Sedaine (1719-1797)

Born in Paris on June 2, 1719, Jean-Michel Sedaine was the first-born of seven children to Jean-Pierre Sedaine, a stonemason and architect, and Marie-Jeanne Gourdain. Following in his father’s footsteps, Jean-Michel progressed from journeyman stonemason to foreman and, finally, assistant architect. In his leisure time, he wrote poetry, publishing his first album in 1752. It was a success and a second edition was published in 1760. He soon turned to writing for the stage. His first opéra-comique was Le Diable à quatre (1758) after the ballad opera by Charles Coffey entitled The Devil to Pay, or The Wives Metamorphos’d. He then produced three works to music by Philidor: Blaise le savetier (Blaise the cobbler, 1759), Le Jardinier et son seigneur (The Gardner and his Lord and Master, 1761), and L’Huitre et les plaideurs (The Oyster and the Litigants, 1759/61), before meeting Monsigny, with whom he collaborated on several very successful opéras-comiques. Later, when Monsigny’s production slowed down because of his failing eyesight, Sedaine collaborated with Edgidio Duni (Les Sabots, 1768, and Thémire, 1770), Philidor one last time with Les Femmes vengées (1775) and Grétry (Le Magnifique, 1773; Richard Cœur-de-Lion, 1785; Le Comte d’Albert, 1786; Raoul Barbe-Bleue, 1789; and Guillaume Tell, 1791). Sedaine also had a successful career in the theater with such plays as Le Philosophe sans le savoir (1765), and La Gageure imprévue (1768). Ruined by the Revolution, he died in Paris on May 17, 1797, leaving his wife and children penniless.