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Elleviou in his role in Le Prisonnier or La Ressemblance, circa 1798.
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Jean Elleviou (Pierre-Jean-Baptiste-François Elleviou; 14 June 1769, Rennes – 5 May 1842, Paris), French operatic tenor, one of the most celebrated French singers of his time. The son of a surgeon, he rebelled at having to follow in his father's footsteps and fled to Paris, where he fell in with actors and musicians. But just as he was about to make his stage debut, he was apprehended by the police and returned home to Rennes. There he was forced to resume his medical courses but, after only a few months, he convinced his father that he should be allowed to finish his studies back in Paris. Where, once again, he abandoned them. Though he made his debut in 1790
at the
Comédie Italienne as a baritone in Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny’s
Le Déserteur, a year later he performed in a tenor role in Nicolas Dalayrac’s
Philippe et Georgette.
He went on to create forty some roles during the next twenty years, in operas by Grétry, Dalayrac, Monsigny, Boieldieu, Méhul, Isouard, and others. According to contemporaries, he possessed a very sweet and flexible voice, excellent diction, and had a handsome figure and charming
stage presence which made him a great favorite with Parisian audiences. He toured in Italy in 1795 and throughout France in 1795-97,
returning to Paris to perform at the
Opéra-Comique (the newly renamed
Comédie Italienne).
Of a capricious and irritable nature, he also became more and more financially demanding. Fortunately, he married a very wealthy woman from Lyon. And after he retired in 1813 - at the height of his fame and only forty-four years old - he devoted his time to his properties in Lyon.
He was eventually elected mayor of his commune, then general councilor of the Rhône. He died of apoplexy at the age of seventy-three.
Boilly’s portrait of Elleviou depicts the young singer in his role in
Le Prisonnier or
La Ressemblance,
a comic opera in one act with music by Domenico Della-Maria and
libretto by Alexandre Duval, which premiered at the
Théâtre Feydeau on
29 January 1798. The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon in July
of 1798 as, “
Portrait du C[itoy]en. Elleviou, Artiste du théâtre de
L’Opéra-Comique national, représenté dans le costume de son rôle dans la
jolie pièce du Prisonnier.” Two years later, at the Salon of 1800, Boilly exhibited a
trompe l’oeil
painting depicting various drawings and prints including at center an
“engraving” that reproduces his earlier portrait of Elleviou. (The
artist also included his own self-portrait in the composition at lower
left.)
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Trompe l’oeil by Boilly, circa 1800.
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***
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| Engraving by Pierre Audouin after the portrait by Henri François Riesener, circa 1800. |
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| The original portrait by Henri François Riesener. |
***
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| As the title role in Jean de Paris, opéra-comique, music by Boieldieu and libretto by Saint-Just, circa 1812. (2 images.) |
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| As Diego in Picaros et Diego ou la Folle Soirée, opéra-comique, music by Dalayrac and libretto by Dupaty, circa 1803. |
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| As the title role in the opera Joseph, music by Méhul and libretto by Duval, circa 1807. |
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| As Richard in Le Roi et le Fermier, opéra-comique, music by Monsigny and libretto by Sedaine, circa 1806. |
***
Two portraits presumed to be of Elleviou. (Which, to me - though both are charming - seems unlikely.)
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| Portrait by Désiré-Adelaïde-Charles Maignen de Sainte-Marie, 1809. |
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| Miniature de Charles Berny, 1813. |
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