Julie Candeille, born in 1767 in Paris, was the daughter of Amélie Brébart and composer and singer Pierre Candeille (1744-1827). She studied under her father, then under Holaind, Séjan, and Hüllmandel. Her father had her perform at salons starting at age nine. After a year of singing lessons under Legros, she debuted at the Paris Opera in 1782, but her voice was judged too weak. In 1783, she performed as a pianist in concertos by Clementi and Schobert at the Concert Spirituel, a great Parisian musical institution, and returned in 1784 with her own Concerto, op. 2, published in 1787. She also published her op. 1, Trois sonates pour piano avec accompagnement de violon, in 1786. She then turned to the theatre, becoming a sociétaire of the Comédie-Française from 1786 to 1791, and in 1792 her comedy in three acts Catherine ou la Belle Fermière was performed at the Théâtre de la République, set to her own stage music. She played the title role, singing and playing the harp. The play met with major success, and remained a standard in France and abroad until the mid-19th century. In 1794, she married medical doctor Louis Delaroche, whom she divorced in 1797. In 1798, she married Belgian coachbuilder Jean Simmons, and stepped back from the Parisian music scene after publishing several piano sonatas that same year. She left Simmons in 1802 and returned to Paris, becoming a caretaker for her elderly father and making a living through music lessons. In 1807, her opera Ida ou l’Orpheline de Berlin, on her own libretto, was performed at the Opéra-Comique to pay for her father’s expenses, but it was a failure. She returned to composing piano pieces and published a few vocal pieces, as well as novels and essays. After her father’s death, she married painter Hilaire-Henri Périé de Sénovert in 1822. She also carried on an intense artistic friendship with painter Anne-Louis Girodet, from 1800 to his death in 1824.

– Florence Launay –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]


She is also referred to under the following names: Amélie-Julie Candeille , Émilie Candeille , Julie Candeille Simons, or Julie Périé-Candeille.