Pierre-Joseph Candeille

Pierre-Joseph Candeille (8 December 1744 – 24 April 1827) was a French composer and singer, born in Estaires. He studied at Lille before moving to Paris, where he worked singing basse-taille in the chorus of the Opéra and the Concert Spirituel between 1767 and 1781, except for a brief period (1771—1773) he spent in Moulins. From 1784, he became a full-time composer. He worked at the Opéra as choirmaster from 1800 to 1802 and again from 1804 to 1805, before retiring to live in Chantilly.

Candeille wrote four symphonies, as well as ballets, divertissements and sacred music (including a mass and a Magnificat). None of his operas achieved much success, with the exception of his revision of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Castor et Pollux. Candeille's version was premiered at the Paris Opéra on 14 June 1791. By 1 January 1793, it had had 50 performances. It continued to be one of the most popular operatic works in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period and was last staged in 1817. Candeille retained much of Rameau's original music, including "almost all the dances."

Candeille was the father of the composer, singer and actor Amélie-Julie Candeille.

Works

Staged works All information from Julian Rushton in Grove.

TitleGenreSub­divisionsLibrettoPremière dateTheatreLes curieux indiscrets divertissement Jean-Georges Noverre 1778 Comédie-FrançaiseDeux comtesses divertissement Jean-Georges Noverre 1778 Comédie-FrançaiseLa provençale sung ballet 1 entrée Joseph de La Font 8 November 1778 Paris OpéraLaure et Pétrarque pastorale-héroïque 1 act Pierre-Louis Moline 1778 (revised 1780) Marly; revised version, Paris OpéraPizarre, ou La conquête de Pérou tragédie lyrique 5 acts Pierre Duplessis 3 May 1785 Paris OpéraCastor et Pollux (revision of Rameau's opera) tragédie lyrique 5 acts Pierre-Joseph Bernard 14 June 1791 Paris OpéraLa patrie reconnaissante, ou L'apothéose de Beaurepaire opera 1 act Lebœuf 3 February 1793 Paris Opéra

Unperformed works Les fêtes lupercales (pastorale-héroïque), 1777 L'Amour et Psyché, Bacchus et Erigone, 1780 (proposed revision of two entrées of Mondonville's Les fêtes de Paphos) Thémire (opéra), c.1781 Lausus et Lydie (opéra), 1786 Les jeux olympiques (opéra), 1788 Ladislas et Adélaide (opéra), 1791 Roxane et Statira, ou Les veuves d'Alexandre (tragédie lyrique), c.1792 Brutus (opéra), 1793 Danaé (opéra), c.1796 Tithon et l'Aurore (opéra), c.1796 Ragonde (pastorale-héroïque), c.1798 Pithys (pastorale-héroïque)