Jean-Étienne Despréaux (; 31 August 1748 – 26 March 1820) was a French ballet dancer, choreographer, composer, singer and playwright.He has no family relationship with Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux.
Biography The son of an oboist of the orchestra of the Académie royale de musique, he made here his début in 1763, four years after his brother Claude-Jean-François.
A remarkable dancer for his lightness in the high dance, he was applauded in several ballets : 1771: Pyramus and Thisbe, by La Serre, Rebel and Francœur 1773: Les Amours de Ragonde, by Destouches and Mouret 1774: Iphigénie en Aulide, by Du Roullet and Gluck 1774: Sabinus, by Chabanon and Gossec 1778: La Chercheuse d'esprit, a ballet by Maximilien Gardel.
He retired in 1781 with a 1,000 livres pension and married the famous ballerina Marie-Madeleine Guimard on 14 August 1789.
Charles-Maurice Descombes, in his 1856 Histoire anecdotique du théâtre, writes: Charles-Maurice Descombes, Histoire Anecdotique Du Théâtre, de La Littérature et de Diverses Impressions Contemporaines, Tirée Du Coffre d’un Journaliste, Avec Sa Vie à Tort et à Travers, vol. 1 (Paris: Henri Plon, 1856), 250.
Works Despréaux wrote several parodies of operas that Louis XV particularly appreciated.
1777: Berlingue, parody of Ernelinde by Sedaine and Philidor 1778: Momie, parody of Iphigénie en Aulide by Gluck 1778: Romans, parody of Roland by Quinault and Lully 1780: Christophe et Pierre-Luc, parody of Castor et Pollux by Gentil Bernard and Rameau 1786: Syncope, reine de Mic-Mac, parody of Pénélope by Cimarosa 1801: Jenesaiki, ou les Exaltés de Charenton, parody of Béniovski ou les Exilés du Kamchattka by Boieldieu 1801: La Tragédie au vaudeville, en attendant le vaudeville à la tragédie, parody of Othello by Jean-François Ducis
He also made the opening prologue for the Théâtre de la Reine in May 1780.
But he is mostly known as the author of Mes passe-temps : chansons, suivies de l'Art de la danse, poème en quatre chants, calqué sur l'''Art poétique de Boileau Despréaux,Paris, Defrelle, Petit, 1806, 2 vol.; 2e éd. Paris, l'Auteur, Petit, 1807; 3e éd. Paris, Crapelet, 1809. seminal work for choreography considered as an art in itself, and not as mere entertainment.
References
Bibliography Jacques-Alphonse Mahul, Annuaire nécrologique, ou Supplément annuel et continuation de toutes les biographies ou dictionnaires historiques, 1e année, 1820, Paris : Baudoin, 1821, (p. 82–83) Émile Campardon, L’Académie royale de musique au XVIIIe'', Paris, Berger-Levrault et Cie, 1884, vol. I, (p. 245–247).
External links Jean-Étienne Despréaux on Data.bnf.fr His plays on CÉSAR