Antoine Danchet (7 September 1671 – 21 February 1748) was a French

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 ...

, librettist and dramatic poet.

Biography

Danchet was born in Riom, in the

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; or ) is a cultural region in central France. As of 2016 Auvergne is no longer an administrative division of France. It is generally regarded as conterminous with the land area of the historical Province of Auvergne, which was dis ...

, France. Having been a professor of rhetoric at

Chartres Chartres () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...

and then a tutor at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Danchet gave up teaching to write for the theatre. He wrote some opera libretti which, set to music by

André Campra André Campra (; baptized 4 December 1660 – 29 June 1744) was a French composer and conductor of the Baroque era. The leading French opera composer in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau, Campra wrote several '' trag ...

, met with success. By contrast, his tragedies, mediocre imitations of Racine, almost all failed. He died in

. An associate member of the

Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

from 1705, he was elected to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in 1712 thanks to the patronage of Mesdames de Ferriol et de Tencin.

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

wrote an epigram about him stating that his membership was more for his good deeds than his writing. :fr:Antoine Danchet He died in Paris. His works, published in 1751 include, in addition to dramatic works, odes, cantatas, and letters. In 1781,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

and Giambattista Varesco wrote the opera

Idomeneo (Italian for ''Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', Köchel catalogue, K. 366) is an Italian-language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Vares ...

which was originally a Danchet work.

Principal works

* '' Hésione'' (1700) ; * '' Tancrède'' (1702) ; * ''Cyrus'' (1706) ; * ''Les Tyndarides'' (1708) ; * '' Les fêtes vénitiennes'' (1710) ; * ''Les Héraclides'' (1719) ; * ''Nitétis'' (1724).

References

External links

Antoine Danchet
on Data.bnf.fr 1671 births 1748 deaths People from Riom 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights Members of the Académie Française French opera librettists {{France-playwright-stub