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Michel Jean Sedaine

Jean-Michel Sedaine
Engraving of Henry Grevedon after a portrait by David
Engraving of Henry Grevedon after a portrait by David
Activity (s) Playwright
Birth 1719
Deaths 1797
Writing language French

Jean-Michel Sedaine, born on 2 June 1719 Biography

Sedaine was the son of a Parisian master mason who had won the coveted status of a contractor 's Buildings King before going bankrupt. Orphaned at 13, his son had to leave the College des Quatre-Nations, to support his family, get workman, earning his living as a stonemason or as a plasterer. He had completed his own education by reading, and was exercised in his free time to compose verses. It was noticed by the architect and contractor Jacques Francois Buron , who took him in his office, first as an employee and later as charge d'affaires. Leisure that allowed him the job performances were held in the Exhibition and the Comedie Italienne.

He reported these vicissitudes with humor in a room of her first collection of poems, the Epistle to my coat ( 1752 ), a poem which was noticed, which was really the only remarkable collection, which has retained some notoriety. With natural and sensitivity, the author exposes the power of a beautiful dress in France and the changes that occurred in his life when he was given to take a:

Ah! my coat, I thank you!
I been worth yesterday, thanks to your Value!

This piece was spotted by a former magistrate appointed Lecomte (or County), who thought the author up to 1200 pounds on the pretext of inspecting the houses he owned. Freed from worry about money, Sedaine began in 1756 a brilliant librettist career that lasted nearly forty years. Frequenting literary cafs and a few shows, he became acquainted with D'Alembert , who had been his classmate with Favart and, especially, with Diderot , whom he shared the views on drama. Thus linked to Encyclopedists Philosophers and reformers, he married their quarrels and their principles.

As librettist, Sedaine tried his hand at all genres: comedy historical operas ( Richard the Lion-Heart ), fun (The Devil Four, Rose and Colas), bass (The King and the Farmer) or watery (The deserter).

For the theater itself, he has composed two tragedies, without much interest, and two comedies, which have remained popular and now account for most of the fame of their author: The Philosopher without knowing it ( 1765 ) and The Unexpected ( 1768 ).

With his pen, Sedaine acquired a decent comfort and settled Wells Street in the Marais. With the Marquis de Marigny , he became secretary of the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1768 , which allowed him to have a large apartment at the Louvre and enjoy a pension of 1800 pounds. A protg of Catherine II of Russia , he benefited from his generosity, which enabled him to buy a small property in Saint-Prix , near Montmorency. He was invited by Marie Antoinette at Versailles to make him repeat some of his books . Finally, the culmination of his career, he was elected member of the French Academy on March 9 1786.

He married late in 1769 with Jeanne Sriny Suzanne, whom he had three (or four children) for which he was a father exemplary. It also collects orphans, young Gueret, including Anne and Louise , and protected the painter David , nephew of the architect who had helped him in his youth, he encouraged the artistic beginnings. However, although welcomed the French Revolution , he challenged the Jacobinism and broke with the young painter. This led to his being dismissed from the Institute of France during the latter's creation in 1795. He had no part in revolutionary events, even if he came to rescue those persecuted and died under the Directory in 1797.

Posterity critical

The eminently respectable and sympathetic character Sedaine often colored judgment for his work. In the nineteenth century , a play like The Philosopher without knowing it was even ranked among the works of genius. Since then, much of this income exaggeration, and if the work of Sedaine retains some notoriety, it owes largely to the talent of the composers who set his works in music ( Franois-Andr Danican known as Franois- Andr Philidor, Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny , Andre Grtry to name the most famous). However, after much maligned, is now recognized quality books Sedaine, whom we recognize the merit of having established the genre of comic opera.

His style is often incorrect, and generally flat and bland. Jean-Francois de La Harpe was pleased to note this in his literature courses. His poetry, fairly abundant, is generally prosaic, and the author himself said, referring to his collection of poems published Fugitive 1760 : "I regret, instead of myself engaged in such frivolities, n have not given a play. "

Works

  • Varia
    • Epistle to my coat, 1751
    • Fugitive Poems, 1752
    • The Vaudeville didactic poem in four songs, 1758
    • Collection of poems, 1760
    • Bagatelle, 1770
    • Acceptance speech at the French Academy, 1786

See also

Bibliography

  • Cardinal George Grente (ed.), Dictionary of French letters. The eighteenth-century novel. revised and updated under the direction of Franois Moureau , Paris, Fayard, 1995, p. 1233-1235

External Links

References

  1. Some sources indicate July 4, 1719.
  2. The Queen liked to play the role of marquise in The Unexpected.
  3. His son, Henry Sedaine Anastasius, was an architect, and his daughter married the Earl of Agatha Brisay.


Preceded by
Claude-Henri Watelet 		Chair 7 of the French Academy
1786-1803 		Followed by
Jean-Franois Collin Harleville


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