LESUEUR, Jean François (1763-1837), was born near Abbeville in 1763, and studied music under Roze at the college of Amiens. Appointed choirmaster of a church in Paris in 1784, he completed his musical education under Sacchini. In 1786 Lesueur obtained by open competition the musical directorship of Notre-Dame, where he gave successful performances of sacred music with a full orchestra. This place he resigned in 1788; and, after a retirement of five years in a friend’s country house, he produced La Caverne and two other operas at the theatre Feydeau in Paris. At the foundation of the Paris Conservatoire (1795) Lesueur was appointed one of its inspectors of studies, but was dismissed in 1802, owing to his disagreements with Mehul. On the recommendation of Paisiello, Lesueur succeeded this celebrated composer as Maestro di cappella to Napoleon, and produced (1804) his Ossian at the Opera. He also composed for the emperor’s coronation a mass and a Te Deum. Louis XVIII., who had retained Lesueur in his court, appointed him (1818) professor of composition at the Conservatoire; and at this institution he had, among many other pupils, Hector Berlioz, Ambroise Thomas, Besozzi, and Gounod. He died October 6, 1837. Lesueur composed eight operas and several masses, and other sacred music. All his works are written in‘a style of rigorous simplicity; and to this may be ascribed their want of popularity at the present time.