Nicolas Dalayrac - Romanza "Ah, Georgette..." from the opera "Philippe et Georgette", transcription by Alessandro Longo.
The transcription is part of the collection "La biblioteca d'oro del pianista" by Alessandro Longo: vol. I, n. 3.
Nicolas-Marie d'Alayrac, nicknamed the Musician poet,[more commonly Nicolas Dalayrac, was a French composer of the Classical period.
Nicolas-Marie d'Alayrac was born in Muret on 8 June 1753, into a noble family of Sir Jean d'Alayrac and his wife Marie Cluzel. Baptized five days later, Nicolas Alayrac is the oldest of five children.
Intended for a military career, he made the acquaintance of many musicians in the Parisian salons, which convinced him of his true vocation. However, it was not until rather late, at the age of thirty, that he performed his first opéra-comique.
His first compositions were violin duos, string trios and quartets. He published them under a pseudonym with Italian consonance. The quartets were very successful, and the true identity of their author was eventually discovered.
Among his most popular works, Nina ou la Folle par amour (1786), which tackles the theme of madness and arouses real enthusiasm during its creation, premiered on 23 November at the Stroganov Palace. Les Deux Petits Savoyards (1789), which deals with the rapprochement of social classes, a theme bearing the ideals of the French Revolution, Camille ou le Souterrain (1791), judged as his best production or even Léon ou le Château de Monténéro (1798) who by his leitmotifs announces a new genre. If he forges an international reputation, he remains nevertheless less known in the lyrical field than André Grétry.
According to René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt, he was initiated into Freemasonry and was a member of the Masonic lodge of «The Nine Sisters». In 1778 he composed the music for the reception of Voltaire, and of the party in honor of Benjamin Franklin at the home of Anne-Catherine de Ligniville Helvétius.
Dalayrac actively participated in the development of copyright.
He married the actress Gilberte Pétronille Sallarde. After the French Revolution he changed his name from the aristocratic d'Alayrac to Dalayrac. In 1804, he received the Légion d'honneur. He died in Paris, aged 56.
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The image before (and after) the music is Le Chapeau blanc (1780s) by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, chosen for this video by D.T.
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