André Cardinal Destouches (1672-1749)
- Suite des 'Issé , pastorale heroique,
représentée devant Sa Majesté, à Trianon, le 17. de decembre 1697'
Performers: English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard (1927-2019, conductor)
Further info: Scylla Et Glaucus - Suite / Issé - Suite
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French composer. Son of Etienne Cardinal, Seigneur des Touches et de
Guilleville and a wealthy Parisian merchant, did not take the patronym
Destouches until his father's death in 1694. From 1681 to 1686 he was
schooled by the Jesuits of the rue St-Jacques. He later went as a boy to
Siam (now Thailand) with his teacher, the missionary Gui Tachard
(1686). He returned to France in 1688. He served in the Royal Musketeers
(1692-94), and later took lessons from Andre Campra, contributing 3
airs to André Campra's opera-ballet 'L'Europe galante' (1697). After
this initiation, he produced his first independent work, 'Isse, a heroic
pastorale' in 3 acts (1697); its popularity was parodied in several
productions of a similar pastoral nature ('Les Amours de Vincennes' by
P.F. Dominique, 1719; 'Les Oracles' by Jean-Antoine Romagnesi, 1741).
Among his other operas, the following were produced in Paris: 'Amadis de
Grece' (1699), 'Omphale' (1701), and 'Callirhoé' (1712). With
Michel-Richard de Lalande, he wrote the ballet 'Les Elements', which was
produced at the Tuileries Palace in Paris on 22 December 1721. In 1713
Louis XIV appointed him 'Inspector general' of the Academic Royale de
Musique. In 1728 he became its director, retiring in 1730. For
'maintaining order and discipline' he received a 4000 livre pension. A
revival of 'Omphale' in 1752 evoked Baron Grimm's famous 'Lettre sur
Omphale', inaugurating the so-called 'Guerre des Bouffons' between the
proponents of the French school, as exemplified by Destouches, and
Italian opera buffa. André Cardinal Destouches remained active musically
even in his last years. At 70, he conducted the orchestra for a masked
ball given by the daughters of Louis XV, and he kept control of the
queen's concerts until 1745. He died in his elegant home (today, 4 rue
Saint-Roch next to the church of Saint Roch), and was buried in the
crypt of the Chapel of the Virgin in that church.
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