Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: When was François Lay born?
François Lay, better known under the stage name Lays [1] (14 February 1758 – 30 March 1831[2]), was a French baritone and tenor opera singer. Originally destined for a career in the church, Lays was recruited by the Paris Opéra in 1779. He soon became a leading member of the company, in spite of quarrels with the management. Lays enthusiastically welcomed the French Revolution and became involved in politics with the encouragement of his friend Bertrand Barère. Barère's downfall led to Lays being imprisoned briefly, but he soon won back the public and secured the patronage of Napoleon, at whose coronation and second wedding he sang. This association with the Emperor caused him trouble when the Bourbon monarchy was restored and Lays's final years were darkened by disputes over his pension, mounting debts, the death of his only son and his wife's illness. After a career spanning more than four decades, he died in poverty.
Lays was famous for the beauty of his voice. One of the Opéra's most popular artistes, he enjoyed his greatest success singing comic roles, such as Anacreon in Grétry's Anacréon chez Polycrate (1797) and the bailiff in Lebrun's Le rossignol (1816).
Bonvin was born in humble circumstances in Paris, the son of a police officer and a seamstress. When he was four years old his mother died of tuberculosis and young François was left in the care of an old woman who underfed him. Soon his father married another seamstress and brought the child back into the household. Nine additional children were born (one of whom was Léon Bonvin). The family's resources were severely strained, and to make matters worse his stepmother took to abusing and undernourishing François.
François-Marie Bissot was born in Montreal to Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes and Marguerite Forestier on June 17, 1700. He was named François Margane after his godfather and uncle. In 1717, he joined his father at Kekionga, a village of the Miami People near present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana in northeastern Indiana. His father was in charge of promoting loyalty to the French among the Miami Indians. By 1718 Vincennes was working among the Ouiatenon Miamis on the upper Ouabache River. When his father died in 1719, François seemed to be the natural replacement.
François-André Danican Philidor came from a well-known musical family, which included:François-André Danican Philidor's father was 79 when he was born, a widower who remarried with a 19-year-old woman, Elizabeth De Roy, when he was 72. The elder Philidor died when his son was 4 years old.
It is not known when Qin Shubao was born, but it was known that he was from Qi Province (齊州, roughly modern Ji'nan, Shandong). He became a soldier under the service of the major general Lai Hu'er (來護兒) during the reign of Emperor Yang of Sui. When Qin's mother died, Lai, extraordinarily, sent a messenger to mourn her death, and when Lai's secretary found this odd, Lai responded, "This man is brave and fierce, and he is also full of ambition and integrity. One day he will gain his own honors, and I cannot treat him as if he were base."
New political developments did not bode well for Lays. Charles X, who had come to the throne in 1824, named the ultra-royalist Sosthène de La Rochefoucauld as Director General of the Fine Arts. La Rochefoucauld had an aversion to Lays both as an inveterate supporter of the Revolution, and, in particular, for the ironic remarks the singer had made about his morality campaign, which included lengthening ballerinas' skirts and providing ancient statues with fig leaves. In 1826, La Rochefoucauld had the opportunity to demonstrate his dislike when Lays, realising that life in Paris was beyond his financial means, decided to leave his post as professor and retire to the provinces to be near his married eldest daughter. According to Quéruel. Lays, probably wanting to end his career of more than 40 years on a high note, sent the minister a petition signed by almost all the stars of the Opéra and backed by Cherubini, asking for another benefit concert, in addition to the one three years earlier, this time in aid of his son who was working as a saute-ruisseau'[55] at a notary’s and whose legal studies Lays could not afford to maintain. Inevitably the request fell on deaf ears. Lays also asked for his pension to be recalculated, bearing in mind his years teaching at the conservatory. But this led to disputes to which the correspondence between Cherubini and La Rochefoucauld bears explicit testimony. In October, the former wrote:[56]
Louis-François Cassas, born on June 3, 1756, was a distinguished French landscape painter, sculptor, architect, archeologist and antiquary born at Azay-le-Ferron, in the Indre Department of France. His father was an artisan in the office of the "Ponts et Chaussés", and Cassas followed him there as an apprentice draughtsman when he was only fifteen years old.
Lai was born in Beijing, China as Lai Chit (), initially, but opted for Lai Ming instead. He is of Hakka ancestry. His family was originally from Meixian. His parents divorced when he was four. He migrated with his Indonesian Chinese father, Lai Xinsheng to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution in China. At the age of 15, he attended Lewisham College in the United Kingdom but returned to Hong Kong at 18 in 1984.
In late 1795, Lays was named Professor of Singing at the newly opened Paris Conservatoire. Four years later he resigned to avoid being involved in the quarrel then raging between the managements of the Conservatoire and the Opéra.[3] Quéruel credits Lays with teaching two future stars of the Opéra: Madame Chéron and Mademoiselle Armand.[28] The latter is a possibility;[29] the former[30] had begun her career in 1784 under the name Mademoiselle Dozon, and is thus unlikely to have attended the Conservatoire more than a decade later. Lays did play a part in promoting her early career: he had auditioned her when she was a young unknown in 1782 and had facilitated her studies, entrusting her to the best singing teachers available.[31]
La Rochefoucauld's reply on the issue of the pension was delayed until January 1827, when he stated that Lays was not entitled to any pension increase with regard to his previous years of teaching, having already received the maximum provided for as a result of his theatrical activity, and having furthermore shared half the takings from an extra benefit performance. Meanwhile, Lays, his wife and unmarried daughters, had retired to Ingrandes in the Loire valley, where they joined his married daughter Marie-Cécile. Here he had already witnessed the death of his son Bertrand from consumption and was soon to see his wife stricken with paralysis. In his final years Lays spent his time singing hymns in local churches.[58] He died aged 73 in 1831, leaving his wife and children the paltry sum of 1056 francs.[59]
Lay was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the son of James Landon Lay and Mary Jane Bellew. He had a brother Encil Lay and a sister Maggie Lay Sprigg. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to northeastern Colorado. At the age of 18, Lay left home looking for adventure with his childhood friend William McGinnis. McGinnis soon returned home, claiming he was homesick. Later, Lay used the name "McGinnis" as an alias when working as a ranch hand.
In the same year, Lays politely refused Napoleon's invitation to join him on his expedition to Egypt. Nevertheless, the pair remained on friendly terms and between 1801 and 1802, Lays – who had often performed in Josephine's salons – became chief singer of the Chapel Napoleon had established at the Tuileries under the directorship of Giovanni Paisiello.[36] As such, three years later, on 2 December 1804, Lays was the lead soloist in the music accompanying Napoleon's coronation as emperor. The ensuing celebrations culminated at the Hôtel de Ville on 16 December with Lays and Chéron singing the cantata Trasibule, specially written for the occasion by Henri-Montan Berton.[37] In 1810, when Napoleon divorced Josephine and entered into a second marriage with the Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise, Lays was the obvious choice to perform at the wedding ceremony. Meanwhile, his stage activity continued unabated, and in 1807 he was also appointed to serve on the Opéra jury in charge of evaluating new works to be staged.[38] Other members of the jury came and went, but Lays remained in office continuously until 1815.[39]
At the fall of Napoleon in 1814, Lays was one of the Emperor's most prominent favourites, so when the allied armies entered Paris under the leadership of Tsar Alexander I, he was understandably worried about his own future. On 2 April, Talleyrand ordered the Opéra to mount a performance in honour of the tsar. The opera chosen, Le triomphe de Trajan by Persuis and Lesueur, had originally been given in 1807 to celebrate Napoleon's return to the capital. Not wanting to hurt the French public's feelings, Alexander requested a staging of Spontini's La vestale instead, an opera in which Lays always assumed the role of Cinna. At the end of the performance, the angry audience forced Lays – still dressed in his Roman toga – to return to the stage and recite some popular verses thanking the tsar for restoring the Bourbons.[40] According to the brothers Michaud, Alexander was moved to compassion by the sight of the terrified singer and sent one of his aides-de-camp on stage to reassure him.
François de La Rochefoucauld was born 8 December 1558, the second of four sons of Charles de La Rochefoucald, Count of Randan, and Fulvie Pico della Mirandola, and the nephew of Jean de La Rochefoucald, abbot of Marmoutier. When François was three years old, his father was killed at the Siege of Rouen and the family returned to the household of Queen Caterina de Medici of France. 
Louis François was born on 14 January 1742 to François Perrin (d. 1748) and his wife Marguerite Marque de Farges (d. 1754). Louis was twelve years old when his mother died and was placed in the care of his uncle, an officer who agreed to take him into the regiment he commanded. Louis went to Valenciennes in 1755 where he learned the profession of a soldier in the Regiment of Picardy.
Lays's direct involvement in political life went little further than this, but, contrary to the claims of the brothers Michaud and Fétis, it was enough to cause him unpleasant repercussions when in 1794 the coup of 9 Thermidor and the downfall of Robespierre radically changed the political situation. Lays was branded a "Terrorist actor" alongside other leading performers with a Revolutionary past, such as Talma, Dugazon and Antoine Trial; and he was forced to try to defend himself by publishing a pamphlet entitled Lays, artiste du théatre des Arts, à ses concitoyens.[22] When a warrant was issued for the arrest of Barère and three of his colleagues from the Committee of Public Safety in March 1795, other associates were implicated in his downfall: Lays was arrested and imprisoned for about four months together with an old friend who had shared his political trajectory – although his role had been far more prominent – the painter Jacques-Louis David.
While there seems to have been no doubt about the great beauty of Lays's voice, which he was able to preserve throughout his career, Fétis criticised his skill in managing it:
On 14 May 1610, Ravaillac lay in wait in the Rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris (now south of the Forum des Halles); when the king passed, his carriage was halted by a blockage in the street, and Ravaillac stabbed Henry to death. Pierre de l'Estoile, the chronicler, stated of the king:
The year 1798 was a turning point in Lays's private life: Marie Barbé, with whom he had been living for several years, gave birth to a daughter and Lays, to legitimise the child, decided to marry his companion, even though it was against his father's wishes. Old Lay was furious that his eldest child, who enjoyed a successful career, was marrying a foreign woman with no property. The couple went on to have four more children, including one son who would unwittingly cause Lays enormous grief.[35]
Lays was born in the village of La Barthe-de-Neste in the region of Bigorre in what was then Gascony. His family intended him for a career in the Church at the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame-de-Garaison (Monléon-Magnoac), where he stayed until he was 17, receiving a solid musical education as a chorister and developing a remarkable baritenor voice. He was transferred to Auch for a short while to study philosophy and work as a teacher before returning to Garaison to study theology.[3] In 1778, the canons of the convent gave Lays a grant to study for a doctorate in theology in Toulouse. Lays was now determined to abandon a career in the Church and became increasingly active as a singer, joining the cathedral choir and accepting invitations to perform at local salons. In Toulouse, Lays formed a lifelong friendship with the young lawyer Bertrand Barère, the future French Revolutionary politician and member of the Committee of Public Safety. Barère introduced Lays to the city's Enlightenment circles. On Easter Sunday 1779, Lays was singing the liturgy in the cathedral when he was heard by the Intendant Royal of Languedoc. Following the recruitment practice then used by Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra), the Intendant decided to issue Lays with a royal ordinance (equivalent to a lettre de cachet) obliging him to travel to Paris for an audition.[4]
In January 1797, Lays enjoyed one of the biggest successes of his career when he sang the lead role in Grétry's Anacréon chez Polycrate. The takings from this opera (9,354 livres on the first night alone) helped rescue the disastrous finances of the Théâtre de la République et des Arts (as the Opéra had been renamed).[32] If the quality of his voice was universally admired, his lack of physical elegance, his short and stocky build and the southern accent he never completely managed to lose predisposed Lays to comic rather than dramatic roles, particularly middle-aged buffo characters, in which, "singing of love and good wine, he proved to be sublime".[33] Anacreon was one such role. Lays played the character again in 1803 in the opera Cherubini dedicated to the ancient Greek poet. A few decades later, Castil-Blaze – referring to the work by Grétry – commented:
The first Restoration was quite mild and the only significant penalty Lays suffered was his dismissal from the former Chapelle Impériale with a resulting loss of income. When Napoleon returned to power for the so-called Hundred Days, Lays was inevitably reinstated in his post and he enthusiastically participated in the Te Deum of thanks. The second Restoration of the Bourbons was more serious for Lays.[41] At the express wish of Louis XVIII he was again expelled – this time for good – from the new Chapelle Royale, but in return, in 1816, he was named professor of declamatory singing at the École royale de Musique et de Déclamation, which had replaced the Conservatoire. The salary was indispensable to Lays because his gout meant he was no longer able to appear at the Opéra as regularly as he had done, leading to a drastic reduction in extra income.[42]
François Gesseau Chouteau was born in 1797 in St. Louis, Missouri, to French parents Jean Pierre Chouteau, a prominent fur trader, and his second wife Brigitte Saucier, when the area was still under the authority of New Spain. His uncle Auguste Chouteau had founded the city of St. Louis 33 years earlier. In his youth, François learned his father’s trade, which was the basis of the early wealth of the city. 
The following table contains a list of the roles created by François Lays in the course of his long career. The information is mostly taken from Spire Pitou in his book on the Paris Opéra cited in the bibliography.