Jean Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer |

Jean Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer

Born in 1785 in Paris. He worked at the Paris Opera (first as a timpani player in the orchestra, later as a choirmaster), from 1833 he was a professor of the choral class at the Paris Conservatory.

He wrote 6 ballets (all were staged at the Paris Opera): Proserpina, The Village Seducer, or Claire and Mektal (pantomime ballet; both – 1818), Zemira and Azor (1824), Mars and Venus, or Nets of the Volcano” (1826), “Sylph” (1832), “The Tempest, or the Island of Spirits” (1834). Together with F. Sor, he wrote the ballet The Sicilian, or Love the Painter (1827).

Schneitzhoffer’s creative activity falls at the time of the formation and heyday of the French romantic ballet, he was one of the direct predecessors of Adam and Delibes. The La Sylphide is especially famous, whose stage longevity is explained not only by the high quality of Taglioni’s choreography, but also by the merits of the score: the music of the ballet is elegant and melodic, subtly developed rhythmically, flexibly follows the action, embodying the various emotional states of the characters.

Jean Madeleine Schneitzhoffer died in 1852 in Paris.