This study examines the life and work of François-Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834). He is famous for the operas Jean de Paris (1812) and especially La Dame blanche (1825). Working in Paris and St Petersburg, then returning to Paris, he, collaborating with the brilliant dramatist Eugène Scribe (1791-1861), stimulated the flowering of the Romantic opéra-comique. The genre reached an apogee in his masterpiece based on Sir Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering (1815), with its romance of the Highlands and Scottish folklore. La Dame blanche owes something to the Romantic manner of Carl Maria von Weber, and in its turn exercised a wide influence across Europe, even on Richard Wagner. Boieldieu's biography and artistic achievements are considered. These are examined individually, with contributions from the vibrant musical criticism of the contemporary Parisian press and the iconography associated with him.
Robert Ignatius Letellier lives in Cambridge, UK, and is a member of Trinity College and the Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall. He has written extensively about the opera and ballet of the 19th century, especially on Meyerbeer, Auber, Halévy, Adam and Minkus, as well as source books on opéra-comique and operetta; also on aspects of Romantic literature (the Gothic Novel, Sir Walter Scott) and Scriptural studies (the Bible in word, art and music). Nicholas Lester Fuller is a journalist living in Canberra, Australia. He grew up in Belgium, and studied literature and history at the Australian National University and Sydney University, Australia. He has a particular love of opera, and a specialist engagement with French opera of the 19th century. He has written articles on Massenet, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Reyer, and Hérold for MusicWeb International, and reviewed for Limelight, the Australian classical music magazine.
