Antoine Gautier de Montdorge, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Antoine Gautier de Montdorge

French economist, writer, playwright and librettist

Date of Birth: 17-Jan-1701

Place of Birth: Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Date of Death: 24-Oct-1768

Profession: writer, economist, playwright, Encyclopédistes, librettist

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Antoine-César Gautier de Montdorge (or Mondorge) (17 January 1701 or 1707 – 24 October 1768) was a French man of letters, best known for writing the libretto for Rameau's opéra-ballet Les fêtes d'Hébé (1739).
Born in Lyon, he moved to Paris, where he worked as a financier (with the title "maître à la Chambre aux deniers du Roi").
He was a friend and neighbour of Rameau's patron Alexandre Le Riche de La Pouplinière and probably met the composer at La Pouplinière's salon.
Montdorge was not identified as the author of Les fêtes d'Hébé on any of its printed editions.
It was first attributed to him by Antoine de Léris in the 1763 edition of his Dictionnaire portatif des théâtres.
Reviewers severely criticised the literary weakness of the work.
The only other opera libretto Montdorge wrote was the one-act comédie-ballet L'opéra de société for Jean-François Giraud in 1762.
He described his experience working as a librettist for Rameau in the anonymously published Réflections d'un peintre sur l'opéra (1743).Montdorge was also interested in the fine arts.
He wrote three articles for the Encyclopédie on engraving and published a work on colour printing, L'art d'imprimer les tableaux en trois couleurs, in 1755.