Download (4) François Rebel [le fils]

(4) François Rebel [le fils]
(b Paris, 19 June 1701; d Paris, 7 Nov 1775). Violinist, theorbo player,conductor, composer
and opera director, eldest son of (3) Jean-Fery Rebel. In 1714 he entered the orchestra of the
Académie Royale and on 22 August 1717 obtained the reversion of his father's position in the
24 Violons. In July 1723 he went to Prague with his friend François Francoeur to see the
coronation of Emperor Charles VI, and while there heard Fux's opera Costanza e Fortezza, in
company with Tartini and Quantz. From then on the careers of Rebel and Francoeur were
indissolubly linked. They played violin duets together at the Concert Spirituel in 1726, and
produced their first joint work, the tragédie lyrique Pirame et Thisbé, known as ‘L'opéra des
enfants’ because of the youthfulness of its authors. Rebel was the sole composer of a
Pastorale héroïque performed at the Académie Royale on 24 January 1733, given by the
plenipotentiary ambassadors of Spain to celebrate the birth of the dauphin.
On 23 July 1733 Rebel married Anne-Auguste de Valjolly, daughter of the dancer Françoise
Prévost. On his first wife’s death he married Anne-Jeanne-Léonarde de la Martinière, and a
month later succeeded André Cardinal Destouches as surintendant of the royal chamber
music. On 25 December 1734 he was appointed head of the Concert Spirituel, and was
inspecteur of the Académie Royale, together with Francoeur, from 1743 to 1753. He also
succeeded his father as conductor at the Opéra from 1739 to 1748. Finally, in 1757, the king
granted Rebel and Francoeur the licence of the Opéra for a period of 30 years. On 22
September 1753 he nominated Pancrace Royer to the reversion of his post as maître de la
musique de la chambre. He concluded his career heaped with honours: he was ennobled by
Louis XV in May 1760, and was made a Chevalier of the Order of St Michel. However, grave
financial, administrative and aesthetic difficulties (the last-named in connection with the
Querelle des Bouffons) brought his licence of the Opéra to an end on 1 April 1767. During the
ten years of its duration over 30 operas had been performed at the Académie, including the
works of Rebel and Francoeur themselves, and Rameau's Dardanus, Les Indes galantes and
Castor et Pollux. In 1772 the king asked Rebel to return to the Opéra in the position of
Administrateur général, which he left a few months before his death.
The output of Rebel and Francoeur consists mainly of works for the stage (operas, ballets and
divertissements). It is difficult to distinguish between the two men's shares in these
compositions, and when questioned on the subject they used to reply, ‘This piece is by both of
us’. La Borde, however, wrote that the ‘morceaux de force’ were Rebel's and the ‘morceaux
de sentiment’ were by Francoeur. Rebel and Francoeur remained supporters of the French
operatic tradition of Lully and Rameau. Their works were popular, as can be seen from the 33
consecutive performances of Scanderberg and the new edition of 1779, in which ‘most of the
divertissements are newly revised’. Rebel composed few works on his own, and is
remembered chiefly for his brilliant career as a theatre director.
WORKS
stage
Music for many stage works written in collaboration with François Francoeur
Pastorale héroïque de la fête des ambassadeurs plénipotentaires – d’Espagne à l’occasion de la
naissance de Monseigneur le Dauphin (ballet, 1, J.-L.-I. de La Serre), Versailles, 24 Jan 1730,
F-Pa,Po (pts)
Intermezzos in Eugénie (comédie), pubd (Paris, 1753), ?collab. Francoeur
Intermezzos in Amour pour amour (comédie), pubd (Paris, 1765), collab. unknown
Addns to Lully’s Persée, 1770, collab. B. de Bury and A. Dauvergne
other works
L’amour et Psiché (cant.), 1v, 2 vn, 2 fl, bc; Climène (cant.), S, 2 vn, bc: both F-Pc
4 motets, all perf. Concert Spirituel, ?all lost: Domine salvum, 8 Dec 1744; De profundis, 12
April 1754; TeD, 8 Dec 1763
Recueil des symphonies composées soit pour les opéras de ces auteurs [Rebel and Francoeur],
soit pour les opéras d’autres auteurs, Pc
Numerous songs and airs pubd in l8th-century anthologies