François-Adrien Boieldieu and the Romantic Opéra-Comique

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.