but met with little approbation. Grand
opera was the order of the day. Boieldieu had to fall back on his talent
as a pianoforte-player for a livelihood. Success came at last from an
unexpected source. P.J. Garat, a fashionable singer of the period,
admired Boieldleu's touch on the piano, and made him his accompanist. In
the drawing-rooms of the Directoire Garat sang the charming songs and
ballads with which the young composer supplied him. Thus Boieldieu's
reputation gradually extended to wider circles. In 1796 _Les Deux
lettres_ was produced, and in 1797 _La Famille suisse_ appeared for the
first time on a Paris stage, and was well received. Several other operas
followed in rapid succession, of which only _Le Calife de Bagdad_ (1800)
has escaped oblivion. After the enormous success of this work, Boieldieu
felt the want of a thorough musical training and took lessons from
Cherubini, the influence of that great master being clearly discernible
in the higher artistic finish of his pupil's later compositions. In 1802
Boieldieu, to escape the domestic troubles caused by his marriage with
Clotilde Aug. Mafleuroy, a celebrated ballet-dancer of the Paris opera,
took flight and went to Russia, where he was received with open arms by
the emperor Alexander. During his prolonged stay at St Petersburg he
composed a number of operas. He also set to music the choruses of
Racine's _Athalie_, one of his few attempts at the tragic style of
dramatic writing. In 1811 he returned to his own country, where the
following year witnessed the production of one of his finest works,
_Jean de Paris_, in which he depicted with much felicity the charming
coquetry of the queen of Navarre, the chivalrous _verve_ of the king,
the officious pedantry of the seneschal, and the amorous tenderness of
the page. He succeeded Mehul as professor of composition at the
Conservatoire in 1817. _Le Chapeau rouge_ was produced with great
success in 1818. Boieldieu's second and greatest masterpiece was his
_Dame blanche_ (1825). The libretto, written by Scribe, was partly
suggested by Walter Scott's _Monastery_, and several original Scottish
tunes cleverly introduced by the composer add to the melodious charm and
local colour of the work. On the death of his wife in 1825, Boieldieu
married a singer. His own death was due to a violent attack of pulmonary
disease. He vainly tried to escape the rapid progress of the illness by
travel in Italy and the south of France, but