Louis-Benoît Picard was a French playwright

After having begun to study law, he first became an actor before producing his first play, Le Badinage dangereux, in 1789.

He was the director of the Odéon then the Académie impériale (then royale) de musique

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

 (1807-1816), his troupe having been merged with that of the Comédiens-Italiens. He was elected a member of the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

 in 1807. He again directed the Odéon from 1816 to 1821.

Works

He wrote several pieces, nearly 100 according to certain sources, including:

• Les Visitandines (put on at the Théâtre Feydeau
  Théâtre Feydeau
  The Théâtre Feydeau, , a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1789 with the patronage of Monsieur, Comte de Provence , and was therefore initially named the Théâtre de Monsieur...
  
   on 7 August 1792, with music by François Devienne
  François Devienne
  François Devienne was a French composer and professor for flute at the Paris Conservatory.François Devienne was born in Joinville , as the youngest of fourteen children of a saddlemaker...
  
  )
• Médiocre et rampant (1797)
• Le Collatéral (1799)
• Les Provinciaux à Paris (1801)
• Le Contrat d'union (1801)
• La Petite Ville (1801)

External links

• His works and productions on CÉSAR
• His works available on Gallica

Source

• Jean Gourret, Ces hommes qui ont fait l'Opéra, 1984, p. 106-107.