Robert Cambert

Robert Cambert , c.1628-1677, French composer; pupil of Chambonnières. His Pastorale d'Issy (1659) and other works are among the first real French operas. With the librettist Pierre Perrin (1625-75) he created French recitative in operas, including Pomone (1671), which contains all the elements of later French opera such as short symphonies, airs, and dialogues. Both men founded the first French opera company in 1669, but after losing control of this venture to Jean Baptiste Lully, Cambert settled in London where he was possibly murdered.

Cambert, Robert (b Paris, c.1628; d London, 1677). Fr. composer, harpsichordist and organist; colleague in Paris of the poet Pierre Perrin, with whom he collaborated on Pastorale (1659) and Ariane, ou Le mariage de Bacchus (1659). In 1669 Perrin was awarded monopoly for perf. of opera in Fr. language and he and Cambert founded a company. Cambert's Pomone (1671), regarded as the earliest true Fr. opera, ran for 8 months. On Lully taking over the monopoly in 1672, Cambert went to Eng. where Louis Grabu was Charles II's Master of the Musick. Founded a Royal Academy of Music, at which a revised edition of Ariane was perf. in 1674, but the enterprise soon failed. Only fragments of his compositions remain.