François Benoît Hoffmann

François Benoît Hoffmann (July 11, 1760 – April 25, 1828) was a French playwright and critic, best known today for his opera libretto. Hoffmann was born in Nancy, and studied law at the University of Strasbourg. However, a slight hesitation in his speech precluded success at the bar, and he entered military service in Corsica. He served there for only a very short time, and, returning to Nancy, wrote some poems which brought him into notice at the little court of Luneville over which the Marquis de Boufflers then presided. In 1784 he went to Paris, and two years later produced the opera Phèdre. His opera Adrien (1792) was objected to by the government on political grounds, and Hoffmann, who refused to make the changes proposed to him, ran considerable risk under the revolutionary government. His later operas, which were numerous, were produced at the Opéra-Comique. In 1807 he was invited by Charles Guillaume Étienne to contribute to the Journal de l'Empire (afterwards the Journal des... full article at wikipedia