[1] According to Fétis, Larrivée was working as an apprentice to a wigmaker when the head of the Paris Opéra, Rebel, noticed his talent for singing and hired him as a chorus member.
[1] He found Gluck's rival, Niccolò Piccinni, less congenial but still worked with him on the premieres of operas including Roland (1778).
[4] After already getting a pension in 1779, he retired from the Académie Royale de Musique in 1786 and devoted most of the time he had left to live to tour around with his two daughters, Camille (later known as Mme Delaval) and Henriette, who played respectively harp and violin.
[5] The 19th-century writer Émile Campardon described Larrivée thus: "The artist, who had everything – a good figure, a wide range, a flexible voice, and acting that was both natural and intelligent – deserved the applause he received over a career spanning more than thirty years.
"[1] Fétis claimed that Larrivée had a tendency to turn nasal on high notes and quoted a joke from a member of the audience: "There's a nose with a good voice!