André Cardinal Destouches was a French composer best known for the opéra-ballet Les élémens.
Background
Born in Paris, the son of Étienne Cardinal, a wealthy merchant, André Cardinal was educated by Jesuits. When his father died in August 1694, André Cardinal added "Destouches" to his name in memory of his father"s title, Seigneur des Touches et de Guilleville.
Career
Coming back to France, in September 1688, he spent several months at the academy in the Manège royale, rue de Tournon. In 1692 he joined the army and participated in the invasion of Namur, discovering his musical talent while not occupied by combat. He quit the army in 1696 to pursue his musical aspirations.
Destouches" opera Issé was performed for Louis XIV at the Trianon in 1697.
Louis was impressed and said that he enjoyed his music as much as that of Jean-Baptiste Lully. The opera was successfully repeated at the Opéra a few weeks later.
The following year found him dining with Boileau in the company of Racine. After a series of successful operas and the commencement of his successful collaboration with the librettist Pierre-Charles Roy, in 1713 the king appointed Destouches inspector general of the Académie Royale de Musique, at a stipend of 4000 livres a year.
Later, in 1725 Louis XV would appoint him superintendent of chamber music for the Chambre du Roi, and then Director of the Académie.
Under the Régence, as Destouches" operas were revived at the Opéra, Destouches was able to purchase the terroir of Louisiana Vaudoire at Sartrouville, conveniently close to Paris. With the beginning of the public Concerts Spirituels in Paris, Destouches performed his De Profundis (1725) and his cantata Sémélé (1728) and motet for large chorus O dulcis Jesu (also 1728). Queen Maria Leszczyńska commanded Destouches to recreate the concert series at the Tuileries.
With the death of Michel Richard Delalande in 1726, Destouches assumed control of the Musique du Roi.
He was buried in the crypt of Saint-Roch, Paris.