Jean Baptiste Édouard Du Puy

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Edouard Du Puy as a young man

Jean Baptiste Édouard Louis Camille Du Puy (also Dupuy ; * around 1770 in Corcelles-Cormondrèche , Canton Neuchâtel , Switzerland ; † April 3, 1822 in Stockholm ) was a violinist, singer, conductor and composer who worked primarily at the royal courts of Denmark and Sweden worked.

Life

Du Puy's year of birth is not known with certainty. His mother was probably an unmarried kitchen helper, whose surname Dupuis he later changed to the more elegant Du Puy. He received his first musical training from his relative Gaspard Fritz in Geneva . When he was about 14 he moved to Paris to take violin and piano lessons. From 1786 he studied composition with Johann Ladislaus Dussek . In 1787 he became a violinist in the chapel of the Prussian Prince Heinrich at Rheinsberg Castle and in 1789 later as the successor to Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, its concertmaster. At the time he was studying harmony with Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch in Berlin .

Dismissed in 1790 because of his way of life - he had become the father of an illegitimate child - he went on a concert tour through Northern Europe. In 1793 he got a job at the court orchestra in Stockholm, initially as 3rd concertmaster . He soon managed to make a name for himself as a composer for ballet and he became a conductor at the Stockholm Theater. He also made his debut as a singer in early 1799. However, performing a song by Carl Michael Bellman in honor of Napoleon put him out of favor with King Gustav IV Adolf . Du Puy had to leave Sweden.

In Copenhagen he initially hired himself as a music teacher. He soon became famous as a violinist with his own concert. He was accepted into the court orchestra and soon became its concertmaster. The handsome Du Puy, who was blessed with a large vocal range, became even more famous as a singer from 1802 onwards. a. in the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni . In 1803 he married Anna Luise Müller (1778–1831), the daughter of a copperplate engraver with whom he ran a music business, but continued to have numerous affairs. In addition to his work at court, Du Puy also devoted himself to urban musical life, for example with the club concerts of the Harmonious Society (Det harmoniske Selskab) that he initiated in 1804 . He composed marches for the Royal Body Hunters Corps (Kongens Livjægerkorps) , of which he was one of the founding members in 1801. When the British bombed Copenhagen in 1807 , he was made lieutenant for his personal courage and dedication to defending the city. He then stopped performing as a singer, but gave singing lessons to members of the court, including Charlotte Friederike , wife of Prince Christian Friedrich, later King Christian VIII. The affair with her led to Du Puys expulsion from Copenhagen in 1809 and to him a year later Divorce of the prince couple. King Friedrich VI took care of Du Puy's wife and children who were left behind in Copenhagen .

Du Puy first traveled to Paris, but returned to Sweden in 1810, where Karl XIII. sat on the throne and had adopted the French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte , King Charles XIV John since 1818, as his successor. Until the end of his life, Du Puy lived as a singer, composer of operas and ballet music and bandmaster in Stockholm. For the Singspiel Föreningen (Association), with which he celebrated the annexation of Norway to Sweden, he was awarded the title of professor in 1816. In the same year he founded an orchestral school for strings. One of his students was Franz Berwald . Du Puy was the first to perform Mozart operas ( Don Giovanni in 1813 and Le nozze di Figaro in 1821) in Sweden. In 1819 he suffered a stroke. When he died in 1822, Mozart's Requiem was heard at his funeral - also for the first time in Sweden.

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Du Puy's musical style was based on Rossini , Mozart and contemporary French composers such as Nicolas Isouard and Nicolas Dalayrac , whose music he also endeavored to make known at his places of work. His operas, especially his Danish singspiel Ungdom og galskab (Youth and Folly), which premiered in 1806, enjoyed great popularity. His singspiel Felice , also made in Copenhagen, was only performed after his death. He also composed numerous ballet music, concerts and chamber music, folk songs and marches.

Afterlife

Du Puy's participation in the defense of Copenhagen in 1807 and his reputation as a notorious womanizer made him the main character of the ballet The King's Volunteers on Amager by August Bournonville, which premiered in 1871 .

literature

Web links

Audio samples on YouTube :

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ so Kjerulf (see literature)
  2. ^ A b Vincent Arlettaz: Edouard Dupuy (verse 1770-1822) "Le Don Juan du Nord" . (PDF) accessed on February 21, 2017
  3. ↑ Hanns-Peter Mederer: Music History Denmark , 2012; P. 111
  4. ^ Report from the Bournonville Festival 2005
personal data
SURNAME Du Puy, Jean Baptiste Édouard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Du Puy, Jean Baptiste Édouard Louis Camille (full name); Dupuy, Jean Baptiste Édouard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Violinist, singer, conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Corcelles-Cormondrèche , Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1822
Place of death Stockholm