Jean-Baptiste-Denis Despré
Jean-Baptiste-Denis Despré (24 June 1752 – 2 March 1832) was a French playwright, librettist, journalist, and translator.
Biography
[edit]Jean-Baptiste-Denis Despré was born in Dijon, Côte-d'Or. He was the secretary of Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt. He also worked for the baron's son, Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur.[1] Later he became the secretary of Louis Bonaparte, who made him a councillor of state.[2] In 1783 at the Gaîté, he parodied plays of William Shakespeare, that was adapted by Jean-François Ducis.[3]
Works
[edit]- 1776: La Bonne femme, ou le Phénix (vaudeville, parody of Alceste), (with Pierre-Yves Barré (1749-1832) and Pierre-Antoine-Augustin de Piis (1755-1832))
- 1777: L'Opéra de province (parody of Armide in two acts and in verse)
- 1783: Le Roi Lu (parodie du Roi Lir ou Lear, in one act and in verse)
- 1792: Cécile et Ermancé (opéra comique)
- 1793: Nice (one-act comédie en vaudeville, in prose, imitation of Stratonice)
- 1796: Le Retour à Bruxelles (one-act opéra comique)
- 1796: La Succession (one-act opéra comique), (with Jacques-Marie Deschamps)
- 1797: Le Pari (divertissement in one acte, en prose et en vaudevilles), (with Pierre-Yves Barré, Jacques-Marie Deschamps, François-Georges Desfontaines (1733-1825), and Jean-Baptiste Radet (1752-1830)
- 1798: Le portrait de Fielding (one-act comedy)
- 1799: L'Allarmiste (comédie en vaudeville)
- 1800: Le gondolier, ou La soirée venitienne (one-act opera), (with Louis-Philippe de Ségur (1753-1830))
- 1803: Saül (oratorio mis en action)
- 1803: Le Poète satyrique (one-act comedy, in verse)
- 1803: Une soirée de deux prisonniers, ou Voltaire et Richelieu (one-act comedy)
- 1804: Le pavillon du Calife ou Almanzor et Zobéide (opera)
- 1805: Le Nouveau magasin des modernes (one-act comedy, in prose)
- 1805: La Prise de Jéricho (oratorio in three parts)
- 1814: Le laboureur chinois (one-act opera), (with Jacques-Marie Deschamps (1750?-1826), Étienne Morel de Chédeville (1751-1814) and Henri-Montan Berton (1767-1844))
- 1822: Mémoires sur Garrick et sur Macklin
- 1822: Mémoires sur Molière, et sur Mme Guérin, sa veuve (notes and commentary)
- 1827: Œuvres choisies de Dorat
Translations
[edit]- 1793: Le moine by Matthew Lewis
- 1794: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
- 1798: Camilla, ou La peinture de la jeunesse by Fanny Burney (1752–1840)
- 1821: Works by Horace
- 1825–1827: Histoire d'Angleterre depuis l'invasion de Jules-César jusqu'à la révolution de 1688 by David Hume
- 1826: A Simple Story, by Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821)
References
[edit]- ^ César. Calendrier Électronique des Spectacles sous l'Ancien Régime et sous la Révolution. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
- ^ Thomas, Joseph (1 January 2010). The Universal Dictionary of Biography and Mythology. Cosimo, Inc. p. 754. ISBN 9781616400705. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
- ^ Forman, Edward (2010). Historical dictionary of French theater. Bristol: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 105. ISBN 978-0810874510. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
External links
[edit]- Jean-Baptiste-Denis Despré on IdRef
Categories:
- 1752 births
- Writers from Dijon
- 1832 deaths
- English–French translators
- French publishers (people)
- 18th-century French journalists
- 19th-century French journalists
- French male journalists
- 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights
- 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights
- French opera librettists
- 19th-century French male writers
- 18th-century French male writers
- 19th-century French translators