André Cardinal Destouches

André Cardinal Destouches (sometimes called des Touches) (baptised 6 April 1672  – 7 February 1749) was a French composer best known for the opéra-ballet Les élémens.

Coming back to France, in September 1688, he spent several months at the academy in the Manège royal, rue de Tournon.

[6] After a series of successful operas and the commencement of his successful collaboration with the librettist Pierre-Charles Roy, in 1713 the king appointed Destouches inspector general of the Académie Royale de Musique, at a stipend of 4000 livres a year; later, in 1725 Louis XV would appoint him superintendent of chamber music for the Chambre du Roi,[7] and then Director of the Académie.

With the beginning of the public Concerts Spirituels in Paris, Destouches performed his De Profundis (1725) and his cantata Sémélé (1728) and motet for large chorus O dulcis Jesu (also 1728); Queen Maria Leszczyńska commanded Destouches to recreate the concert series at the Tuileries.

With the death of Michel Richard Delalande in 1726, Destouches assumed control of the Musique du Roi.