Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers
Encyclopedia
Fréjus
Fréjus is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, effectively forming one town...
– 9 August 1827) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
composer, dramatist, and song-writer.
Note: Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers is easily confused in historical writings with his father, Marc-Antoine Désaugiers (b. Fréjus, 1742 – d. Paris, 10 September 1793) who was himself a composer of eleven operatic works, mostly comedies, for the stages of Paris, and left ten stage compositions unperformed. Both father and son died in their early 50s.
Biography
Marc-Antoine Madelaine Desaugiers was born in FréjusFréjus
Fréjus is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, effectively forming one town...
(Var), son of an accomplished composer for the stage. He studied at the Collège des Quatre-Nations
Collège des Quatre-Nations
The Collège des Quatre-Nations , also known as the Collège Mazarin after its founder, was one of the colleges of the historic University of Paris. It was founded through a bequest by the Cardinal Mazarin...
, known as "Mazarin College" in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he had for one of his teachers the critic Julien Louis Geoffroy
Julien Louis Geoffroy
Julien Louis Geoffroy was a French literary critic.He was born at Rennes, and educated there and at the Collège Louis le Grand in Paris. He took orders and for some time was a mere usher, eventually becoming professor of rhetoric at the Collège des Quatre-Nations. His tragedy, Caton, was accepted...
. He entered the Saint-Lazare seminary with a view to the priesthood, but soon gave up his intention. In his nineteenth year he produced in collaboration with his father a light opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
(1791) adapted from Le Médecin malgré lui
Le Médecin malgré lui
Le Médecin malgré lui is a comedy by Molière.-Characters:*Sganarelle, a woodcutter*Martine, Sganarelle's wife*Géronte, a wealthy bourgeois*Lucinde, Géronte's daughter...
of Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
.
During the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
he emigrated to Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, and during the Negro revolt he was made prisoner, barely escaping with his life. He took refuge in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he supported himself by teaching the piano. In 1797, he returned to his native country, and in a very few years he became famous as a writer of comedies
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, operas and vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
s, which were produced in rapid succession at the Théatre des Variétés
Théâtre des Variétés
The Théâtre des Variétés is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1975.-History:...
and the Vaudeville. He also wrote convivial and satirical songs, which, though different in character, can only worthily be compared with those of Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger was a prolific French poet and chansonnier , who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the decades following his death...
. He was at one time president of the Ceveau, a convivial society whose members were then chiefly drawn from literary circles. He had the honor of introducing Béranger as a member. In 1815, Désaugiers succeeded Pierre Yves Barr as manager of the Vaudeville, which prospered under his management until, in 1820, the opposition of the Gymnase proved too strong for him, and he resigned.
Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the age of 55.
Among his pieces may be mentioned Le Valet d'emprunt (1807); Monsieur Vautour (1811); and Le Règne d'un terme et le terme d'un règne, aimed at Napoleon. Among his collaborators was Eugène Scribe
Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...
.
An edition of Désaugiers' Chansons et Poésies diverses appeared in 1827. A new selection with a forward by Alfred de Bougy
Alfred de Bougy
Alfred James Louis Joseph de Bougy , French poet and author, was born in Grenoble. He died in Évian-les-Bains.-Works:* Histoire de la Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris: Comon, 1847...
appeared in 1858. See also Sainte-Beuve's Portraits contemporains, vol. V.