Jean de, Sieur de Sablières Granouilhet

Jean de Granouilhet, also known as Seigneur de Sablières, was a French composer born in Languedoc around 1627 and, according to some sources, died in Paris around 1700. He worked in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV, when French opera was still searching for its form and the courts vied with one another in musical spectacle. He is remembered today above all for his connection with the early attempts at court opera in France.

In 1669 he was appointed master and superintendent of chamber music at the court of Philippe, Duke of Orléans. Two years later, in 1671, his pastoral opera Les amours de Diane et d'Endymion, with a libretto by Henry Guichard and composed for the duke's wedding, was premiered at Versailles on 3 November. The following year the work was reworked under the title Le triomphe de l'amour and performed before the king at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The music of both versions has been lost, although it is known that the work was notable for its machinery, dance and spectacle, which links it to Cambert's Pomone.

In 1671 Granouilhet obtained from Pierre Perrin a share of the royal privilege to stage operas, a project he intended to carry out together with Guichard. However, in 1672 Lully secured new letters patent from the king, and Granouilhet was obliged to abandon his plans. In 1679 he returned to Languedoc to direct the music for the festivities at Pézenas and Montpellier marking the signing of the peace with Spain; there he also composed an aristocratic divertimento, now lost.

His surviving output is more modest: six airs de cour for solo voice held at the Bibliothèque nationale, and several pieces for two voices with basso continuo, among them songs for the Duchess of Orléans and tavern songs. He is also credited with settings of some texts by Perrin, which suggests a steady activity within the Parisian courtly milieu, although his historical importance rests largely on his role in early French opera.