Note 9 — Chapter I · THE REGENERATION OF THE OPERA

Born 1712; died 1778. Though not a trained musician he evinced a lively interest in the art from his youth. Besides his Devin du village, which remained in the French operatic repertoire for sixty years, he wrote a ballet opera, Les Muses galantes, and fragments of an opera, Daphnis et Chloé. His lyrical scene, Pygmalion, set to music first by Coignet, then by Asplmayr, was the point of departure of the so-called ‘melodrama’ (spoken dialogue with musical accompaniment). He also wrote a Dictionnaire de musique (1767).