François Francoeur

Rebel and Francœur faced numerous challenges in their joint roles, including a large financial deficit, lack of discipline, as well as handling contentious disagreements between traditionalists who favored French operatic tragedies and its mythological themes versus partisans of Italian opera's simpler lyricism and contemporary subject matter, known as the Querelle des Bouffons.

Disaster struck when the Paris Opéra was consumed in flames on 6 April 1763, and the two directors were forced to resign in 1767 in its aftermath.

However, Louis XV asked Rebel to return to the Opéra as Administrateur général in 1772, a position he held until shortly before his death three years later.

He was thus spared the fate of his nephew, Louis-Joseph Francœur, Master of the King's Chamber music and orchestra director, who was imprisoned during the French Revolution until the fall of Robespierre in 1794.

Although not an outright replacement, Trowell also significantly altered the final Gigue movement as well while keeping Louis Francœur's original harmony.

There is a 2003 recording of Francœur's Sonata in E for Cello and Piano on Delos by Zuill Bailey which is of the Trowell forgery (see above section).

[citation needed] Francœur is sometimes categorised amongst the "Classical-era" composers who avoided the "classical style of Haydn and Mozart".