Career
Delestre-Poirson was the director of the Gymnase dramatique, from 1820 to 1844. His resistance to the decisions taken by the Société des auteurs dramatiques provoked part of the SACD to boycott using that theatre for 2 years. This conflict, in which only Narcisse Fournier remained loyal to Delestre-Poirson, led in the end to Delestre-Poirson"s retirement.
Delestre-Poirson is to be credited with the discovery of all the parts Rachel could play thanks to her deep and penetrating voice, her noble bearing and heroic fits of anger, thus bringing about a renaissance in French classical tragedy, which had been in decline and which Delestre-Poirson thus rejuvenated.
He also wrote a novel, Un Ladre, récit d’un vieux professeur émérite (Paris, Lenormant, 1859), a touching and moral book whose excellent intentions excuse its implausibility.