Marquis de Sourdéac

Alexandre de Rieux, Marquis de Sourdéac, was a French stage machinist and opera impresario, born around 1620 and died at Le Neubourg, in Normandy, on 7 May 1695. His significance lies chiefly in his role in the early development of opera in France, where he combined technical stage design with the management of operatic companies.

His association with the theatre began with the design of the machines for La toison d'or, a tragedy by Pierre Corneille first staged in 1660 in a theatre built specifically in his Norman château. The work reached Paris afterwards, in 1661. In December 1669, together with the wealthy financier Sieur de Champeron, he took over the administrative direction of Perrin's Académies d'Opéra. As a machinist, he devised the spectacular effects for Cambert's Pomone (1671) and later those for Les peines et les plaisirs (1672). It appears that both partners appropriated the company's considerable profits, a factor that contributed decisively to Perrin's ruin, although the precise motivation behind this conduct is not known with certainty.

When the Académies closed, Sourdéac was already preparing the staging of a third opera. Between 1673 and 1681 he worked for the Comédiens-Français. His legacy rests less on works of his own than on having given stage machinery a decisive weight in French operatic spectacle.