Antoine Danchet

Antoine Danchet (7 September 1671 – 21 February 1748) was a French playwright, librettist and dramatic poet.

Having been a professor of rhetoric at Chartres and then a tutor at Paris, Danchet gave up teaching to write for the theatre.

He wrote some opera libretti which, set to music by André Campra, met with success.

Voltaire wrote an epigram about him stating that his membership was more for his good deeds than his writing.

In 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giambattista Varesco wrote the opera Idomeneo which was originally a Danchet work.