Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer

Composer

According to the entry in Fétis' Biographie universelle des musiciens et biographie generale de la musique (2nd edition, Paris 1864), Schneitzhoeffer, born in 1785 Schneitzhoeffer, born in 1785, was initially a timpanist at the opera house in Paris, later a vocal coach. In 1833 he became a lecturer in choral conducting at the Paris Conservatoire. 1818 he created for François Albert's Le séducteur du village and Piere Gardel's Proserpine followed in 1824 by the ballet pantomime Zémire et Azor for André-Jean-Jacques Deshayes, followed in 1826 by Les Filets de Vulcain for Jean-Baptiste Blache, and after the success of La Sylphide in 1832, this was followed in 1834 by a collaboration with Jean Coralli, the co-choreographer of the first Giselle, for a ballet based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, in which Fanny Elssler - Marie Taglioni's rival - aplayed a leading role. The opera Sardanapale remained fragment and no works have survived from the last two decades of Schneitzhoeffer's life. He died in September 1852.