Frédéric Blasius

This frontier town had been fortified in the late 17th century by Louis XIV and had a large military presence, including many musicians.

His mother, a member of the Bugard family, was originally from the South Rhineland town of Schaidt, and his father, Johann Michael Blasius,[2] was from Rastatt in Baden.

[1][3] The young Blasius also received lessons from military musicians;[1] a man referred to as Herr Stadt;[2] and his two older brothers: Johann Peter (French: Pierre; born Lauterbourg, 2 September 1752), a violinist; and Franz Ignaz (French: Ignace; born Lauterbourg, 11 April 1755), a bassoonist.

Autié sold his license to the Italian violinist Giovanni Battista Viotti, who hired Luigi Cherubini to be the director of the new company.

With the invasion of the Tuileries by a mob on 10 August 1792, the Italian singers returned to Italy, and Viotti fled to England.

[9] The repertoire of the Opéra-Comique performing at the Salle Favart during these years testifies to its adherence to the values of the revolution, in contrast to its "rival and emulator", at the Feydeau, which remained true to its aristocratic origins and attracted opponents of the government.

[11] Early in 1794 Blasius was one of twelve composers, including Cherubini, who collaborated on a 3-act Revolutionary, patriotic comédie mêlée d'ariettes called Le congrès des rois.

[12][13] By 1801 the competition between the Opéra-Comique and the Théâtre Feydeau had reached an impasse, and it was decided to merge the two companies "by a legal act of union dated 7 thermidor an IX (26 July 1801)".

The merged company's first performance there was a program consisting of Étienne Méhul's Stratonice and Cherubini's Les deux journées which took place on 16 September 1801.

[16] Two of his own compositions, the mélodrames Adelson et Salvini and Don Pèdre et Zulika, were first performed at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in 1802.

[2][3] Later during the reign of Louis XVIII he became director of the fifth regiment band of the Imperial Guard, and a member of the king's private orchestra.

According to the music historian Deanne Arkus Klein, Blasius' compositions were "influenced by the foreign musicians he encountered in Strasbourg and Paris.... [His] Harmoniemusik for Revolutionary fêtes ... were especially well received [and his] string quartets in particular employ a balance of parts uncommon in France at a time when the virtuosity of the first violin was standard practice.