Joseph Quesnel

French Canadian composer, poet and playwright

A painting of Joseph Quesnel, c. 1808 – 1809, by Gerritt Schipper. Collection du Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges

Joseph Quesnel (15 November 1746 – 2 or 3 July 1809) was a French Canadian composer, poet and playwright. Among his works were two operas, Colas et Colinette and Lucas et Cécile; the former is considered to be the first Canadian opera and probably of North America.[1][2]

## Early life and education

[edit]

Quesnel was born in Saint-Malo, France, the third child of Isaac Quesnel de La Rivaudais (1712-1779), a prosperous merchant, and his wife Pélagie-Jeanne-Marguerite Duguen.[3] He studied at the Collège Saint-Louis (1766).

## Life and career

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Quesnel joined the French merchant marine and sailed to Pondicherry and Madagascar, travelled in Africa, and the Caribbean.[4] He engaged in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1768, as a second-lieutenant on board the Mesny, he sailed to Cabinda (modern-day Angola) where 514 "Blacks of all ages" were purchased and taken to modern-day Haiti where they were sold, according to French archival sources quoted in a novel about him.[5] He carried with him his violin and read the works of French playwrights.[6]

In 1779, Quesnel sailed for New York in command of a French warship which was captured by the British.[7] Quesnel was taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia and allowed to settle in Boucherville, near Montreal, Quebec.[3][8][6] He married Marie-Josephte Deslandes there and became partners in business with Maurice-Régis Blondeau, his mother-in-law's new husband. He became wealthy by trading in slaves.[9][10]

Quesnel published a number of theatrical works, including Colas et Colinette, which was written in 1788 and first performed in 1790,[7] and Lucas et Cecile;[11][12] he also wrote poetry; his best known poem was titled "L'Épître à M. Labadie".[13]

Besides several songs, he composed sacred music for the parish church of Montreal,[6] and some motets, and wrote a short treatise on the dramatic art (1805). He founded and was part of the troupe of Montreal's Théàtre de Societé.[14][15][8]

He died of pleurisy at Montreal in 1809 several months after he had dived into the Saint Lawrence River to save a drowning child.[16]

Quesnel was the subject of the comic opera Le Père des amours, written by Eugène Lapierre in 1942.

## Family

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Quesnel's son Jules Maurice Quesnel travelled with Simon Fraser on his journey to the Pacific Ocean; the town of Quesnel, British Columbia is named for him. Another son Frédéric-Auguste became a lawyer and politician; his daughter Mélanie married lawyer Côme-Séraphin Cherrier.

## Works

[edit]

* Colas et Colinette, a vaudeville (1788)
* Lucas et Cecile, an operetta
* L'Anglomanie, a comedy in verse[17]
* Les Républicains Français, a comedy in prose, afterward published in Paris
* "L'Épître à M. Labadie" – poem

## See also

[edit]

* Poetry portal

* Music of Canada

## References

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1. ^ "Canadian Songs for Parlour and Stage". Carleton University. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
2. ^ Helmut Kallmann (25 May 2013). Mapping Canada's Music: Selected Writings of Helmut Kallmann. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. pp. 50–59\. ISBN 978-1-55458-892-3.50-59&rft.pub=Wilfrid+Laurier+Univ.+Press&rft.date=2013-05-25&rft.isbn=978-1-55458-892-3&rft.au=Helmut+Kallmann&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=T43ZAgAAQBAJ&pg;=PA59&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Joseph+Quesnel" class="Z3988">
3. ^ a b Leonard E. Doucette (1984). Theatre in French Canada: laying the foundations, 1606-1867. University of Toronto Press. p. 52\. ISBN 978-0-8020-5579-8.
4. ^ Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). "Quesnel, Joseph" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
5. ^ Arseneault, Michel (2012). Méfiez-vous des poètes. Montreal: Fidès. pp. 32, 44, 74. ISBN 978-2-7621-3120-8.
6. ^ a b c William White (1890). Canadiana. Vol. 2\. Gazette Print Company. p. 22.
7. ^ a b The Sonneck Society Bulletin. The Society. 1993. p. 58.
8. ^ a b MusiCanada. Vol. 17–29\. The Centre. 1969. p. 18.
9. ^ University of Ottawa. Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française (1970). Bulletin du Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française, Université d'Ottawa. Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française, Université d'Ottawa. pp. 22, 59.
10. ^ Frank Mackey (1 February 2010). Done with Slavery: The Black Fact in Montreal, 1760-1840. MQUP. pp. 439, 539. ISBN 978-0-7735-8311-5.
11. ^ Maurice Lemire (1991). La vie littéraire au Québec: 1806-1839 : le projet national des Canadiens. Presses Université Laval. p. 351\. ISBN 978-2-7637-7282-0.
12. ^ Opera Canada. Vol. 9–11\. Canadian Opera Association. 1968. pp. 32, 79.
13. ^ Robin Elliott; Gordon E. Smith (19 April 2010). Music Traditions, Cultures, and Contexts. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 230\. ISBN 978-1-55458-199-3.
14. ^ Daniel Mendoza de Arce (2006). Music in North America and the West Indies from the Discovery to 1850: A Historical Survey. Scarecrow Press. p. 119\. ISBN 978-0-8108-5252-5.
15. ^ Guy Beaulne (1976). Le Théâtre canadien-français: évolution, témoignages, bibliographie. Fides. pp. 62–63\. ISBN 978-0-7755-0583-2.62-63&rft.pub=Fides&rft.date=1976&rft.isbn=978-0-7755-0583-2&rft.au=Guy+Beaulne&rft_id=https://books.google.com/books?id=9F5cAAAAMAAJ&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Joseph+Quesnel" class="Z3988">
16. ^ Contemporary Canadian Composers ed. by Keith MacMillan and John Beckwith. Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1975
17. ^ Littérature canadienne (1848). Le répertoire national ou recueil de littérature canadienne, compilé et publ. par J. Huston. pp. 7–8.

## External links

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* Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
* Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
* Entry from the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
* (in French) Fonds Joseph Quesnel (R5990) at Library and Archives Canada
* Colas et Colinette ou le Bailli dupé, comédie-vaudeville by Joseph Quesnel. file (R12428) at Library and Archives Canada. The file contains an annotated copy of the piano-vocal score (65 p.) and a text concerning the reconstruction of the work by Godfrey Ridout.

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