Prosper-Didier Deshayes

Who was Prosper-Didier Deshayes?

Prosper-Didier Deshayes was an opera composer and dancer who lived and worked in France. In 1764 he was a balletmaster at the Comédie-Française. By 1774 he had become an assistant at the Paris Opéra. His first opera La faut serment, ou La matrone de Genoesse, a comédie mêlée d'ariettes in two acts, was first performed on 31 December 1785 at the Théâtre des Beaujolais in Paris and became a popular success. He went on to have another 18 works performed at various venues in Paris, but only two, La faut serment and Zélie, ou Le mari à deux femmes, a 3-act drame first performed at the Salle Louvois on 29 October 1791, were ever published as musical scores. He also participated in the collaborative Revolutionary opera Le congrès des rois, a 3-act comédie mêlée d'ariettes, which combined music written by Deshayes and 11 other composers and was first performed by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart on 26 February 1794. He died in Paris.