Louis Anseaume (; 1721 – 7 July 1784) 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 ...

and

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...

from

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 ...

. He contributed the words for operas by

André Ernest Modeste Grétry André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries, as well in Portugal ...

Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (; – ) was a French composer and a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (1813). He is considered alongside André Grétry and François-André Danican Philidor to have been the founder of a new musical gen ...

, Egidio Romualdo Duni,

Christoph Willibald 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 (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...

, and

François-André Danican Philidor François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. ...

. He is credited with developing the genre of '' comédie mêlée d'ariettes'' (), a type of

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...

. A prompter and

répétiteur A (; from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. The feminine form is . Opera In opera, a is the person responsible for coaching singers ...

at Comédie Italienne, he was deputy director of the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief riva ...

and wrote some forty plays, often in collaboration with

Charles-Simon Favart Charles Simon Favart (; 13 November 1710 – 12 May 1792) was a French playwright and theatre director. The Salle Favart in Paris is named after him. Biography Born in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in F ...

, including several opéras-comiques with Duni: *''Le Chinois poli en France'' (1754) *'' Le Peintre amoureux de son modèle'' (1757), music by Duni *'' La Fausse Esclave'' (1758), music by

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 ...

*''Cendrillon'' (1759), music by Laruette *''L'Île des fous'' (1760), music by Duni *''Mazet'' (1761), music by Duni *''Le Milicien'' (1762), music by Duni *'' Les Deux Chasseurs et la Laitière'' (1763), music by Duni *''La Clochette'' (1766), music by Duni *'' Le tableau parlant'' (1769), music by Grétry He was one of the founders of the French opéra comique genre.

Sources

*''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), .

External links

His plays and their presentations
o
CÉSAR

18th-century French dramatists and playwrights French opera librettists Writers from Paris 1721 births 1784 deaths {{Opera-bio-stub