He was born at Liège, Belgium on 26 May 1766. He was the premier bass singer at the Paris Opéra from 1785 to 1804 and took alternative operatic roles with another great singer, Auguste-Athanase Chéron (1760-1829); afterwards he became choirmaster at the opera. In March 1822 Martin-Joseph succeeded Lainé as professor of declamation at the École royale de musique. Unfortunately, he did not live long to enjoy his new position. Martin-Joseph died November 1822.[2]
Some critics considered Martin-Joseph's voice to be too harsh.[2] However, he was an excellent actor. Martin-Joseph's musical talents did not stop with signing. He was also a composer. There are two surviving songs which deal with the aftermath of the French Revolution and foreign invasion. The first was entitled Hymne à la Victoire (1795) and the second hymn to the martyrs for liberty.[3]
Martin Joseph Adrien
In 1813, Martin-Joseph married the Baroness Gabrielle-Constance de Philippy de Bucelly d'Estrées (1782-1854), daughter of Albert Philippi de Bucelly du Tronquoy, Baron d' Estrées (1745-1808) and Catherine Georgia (1753-1810).[3] Martin-Joseph and Gabrielle-Constance issued two equally talented musicians: Atala Thérèse Adrien (1814-1865), wife of the French composer Pierre-François Wartel (1806-1882) and Rosine-Charlotte Adrien, the wife of renowned music teacher François Alexandre Nicolas Chéri Delsarte (1811-1871). The artistic legacy of the Adrien brothers continued on to the next generations. In particular, the children of Delsarte become involved in painting and sculpting and so did his grand-children. Among DelSarte's notable descendants stands out the painters Marie Magdeleine Real del Sarte, née DelSarte, (1853-1927) and Thérèse Geraldy (1884-1865), and the sculptor Maxime Réal del Sarte .[3]
Family
Martin-Joseph came from an artistic family. He was the son of Martin-Joseph Adrien and Marie-Thérèse Cantillon. In total, he had five siblings, many of them musicians. Martin-Joseph's two other brothers Arnold-Michel Adrien dit Adrien l'Ainé (1756-1814) and Jacques-François-Ferdinand Adrien (1760-1830) were also involved in the Paris musical world. They composed music for the revolutionary government in Paris.[4]
Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux was a mistress, confidante and adviser of Henry IV of France. She persuaded Henry to renounce Protestantism in favour of Catholicism in 1593. Later she urged French Catholics to accept the Edict of Nantes, which granted certain rights to the Protestants. Being legally impossible for the king to marry her as he was already married to Margaret of Valois, he controversially filed for an annulment to Pope Clement VIII in February 1599 to end his childless first marriage, and announced his intention to marry Gabrielle and have her crowned the next Queen of France, while legitimizing their three children that were born out of wedlock. Her coronation and wedding never occurred however due to her untimely and sudden death.
The Prix de Rome or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state. The prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803, and engraving in 1804. The prestigious award was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, following the May 68 riots.
Antoine Houdar de la Motte was a French author.
Étienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution". He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic". He is known particularly for his operas, written in keeping with the reforms introduced by Christoph Willibald Gluck.
Anne Jules de Noailles, 2nd Duke of Noailles was one of the chief generals of France towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV, and, after raising the regiment of Noailles in 1689, he commanded in Spain during both the War of the Grand Alliance and the War of the Spanish Succession, and was made marshal of France in 1693.
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, French playwright, was born and died in Paris. He was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, often working in collaboration with others.
The French musical ensemble Les Talens Lyriques was created in 1991 in Paris, France, by the harpsichordist and orchestral conductor Christophe Rousset. This instrumental and vocal formation derives its name from the subtitle of Les fêtes d'Hébé (1739) an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Joseph-François Duché de Vancy was a French playwright.
Marie Anne de Bourbon was Surintendante de la Maison de la Reine to the French queen Marie Leszczyńska. She was the daughter of Louis III, Prince of Condé. Her father was the grandson of le Grand Condé and her mother, Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Nantes, was the eldest surviving daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan. She was known as Mademoiselle de Clermont.
Michel-Paul Guy de Chabanon was a violinist, composer, music theorist, and connoisseur of French literature. He was elected to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (1760) and the Académie française (1779).
François Marie de Lorraine was a French nobleman and member of the House of Lorraine. He was known as the prince de Lillebonne. He was also the Duke of Joyeuse.
Atala Thérèse Annette Wartel, née Adrien, was a French pianist, music educator, composer and critic.
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne or Moyne was a French composer, chiefly of operas.
Pierre-François Wartel was a French tenor and music educator. His wife was Thérèse Wartel, a talented pianist, and their son Émile was a bass who sang and created several operatic roles between 1857 and 1870 at the Théâtre Lyrique and later founded his own singing school.
Vilain and Vilain XIIII is a Belgian noble family. Their coat of arms is basically "sable, au chef d'argent", a colour scheme that is present from the earliest Vilains in the 15th century, and is also seen in the Vilain XIIII arms, which have the "XIIII" added to it.
François Clary was a wealthy French merchant and is an ancestor of many European monarchs by two of his daughters. He was the father of Julie Clary, Queen of Naples and of Spain and the Indies as married to Joseph Bonaparte, a brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also the father of Désirée Clary, who at first was engaged to Napoleon and later became Queen of Sweden and Norway as married King Charles XIV John.
Thérèse-Marie-Rosine Geraldy was a French portrait artist.
Berthe Dyck Kaleka called Kal was a 20th-century French soprano and music educator.
Thérèse Louise Antoinette Regnault, known under the name Antoinette Lemonnier, was a French opera singer, member of the Opéra-Comique.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
