Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon
Born: June 6, 1745, Marcei, France
Died: March 29, 1825, Aubevoye, France
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC RECORDINGS SOURCES
Marie-Emmanuelle Bayon (also known as Madame Louis) was born in Marcei, west of Paris, but little else is known of her early life. Both a fine musician and facile artist on the pianoforte, Bayon was a regular performer at harpist, Madame de Genlis’, salons. Bayon composed instrumental music as well as music for plays that debuted at the salons.
Bayon was known as a “woman of boundless wit” and was a friend of Denis Diderot, the well known philosopher. Diderot’s daughter, Angélique, studied harpsichord with Bayon and also became her lifelong friend. Bayon was closely connected with aristocracy for most of her life due to her noble patron, Madame la Marquise de Langeron, to whom she offered gratitude in her Opus 1 sonatas for her “kindnesses heaped on me since my tenderest infancy.”
Bayon married Victor Louis, a famous architect with strong connections to the theater and politics. He was a prodigy of Richelieu and a friend of the composer, André Grétry. When the couple moved to Bordeaux, Louis was hired to design and oversee construction of the Grand Théâtre there, and their home, where they hosted high-level salons, became a center of musical life.
In 1774, Bayon and Louis had a daughter, Marie-Hélène-Victoire Louis, and Bayon also composed the two-act fairytale opéra comique, Fleur d’épine. It was popular, running for 12 performances in 1776-1777 at the Comédie-Italienne (a cooperative troupe where the members chose works and hired the musicians). A full score of this piece, published by Huguet in Paris in 1776, consisted of 11 arias, 2 duets, 2 trios, an overture, and chorus numbers. This ambitious score in the Italian style includes some demanding coloratura writing with Bayon employing great wit both musically and textually.
In the dedication of Fleur d’épine, Bayon wrote, ”To her most serene Highness, Madame la Duchesse de Chartres…It is the work of a woman; the homage to it was owed to a princess who embodies the charm and adornment of her sex. Her name at the head of my work is a glorious title which assures me of the public’s approbation. This token of patronage stimulates a keen feeling in my heart, and my feeble talents animated by gratitude will henceforth be precious to me only insomuch as I will be able to devote them to you.“
In the period before 1780 when the Grand Théâtre was completed and the family returned to Paris, Bayon most likely composed 2 more operas which have been lost.
In Paris, she and her husband continued hosting salon performances, though Bayon wasn’t composing much and most certainly was not writing for the theaters her husband was designing at the time. Bayon did, however, promote the fortepiano with her performances of her Six Sonatas for Harpsichord or Piano which were published and sold to the general public. She and Louis became estranged before his health declined and his death in 1800. After Louis’ death, Bayon went to live with a former student until her death in 1825.