A native of Parma, Ferdinando Paër had his first opera, Orphée et Euridice, staged there in 1791; it was followed by a Venice production of Circe. Descended from musicians of Austrian origin, he was appointed honorary maestro di cappella in Parma, and with a growing reputation as a composer of opera he moved in 1797 to Vienna, where he was employed as musical director at the Kärntnertortheater. After a short period in Prague and a longer stay in Dresden he was appointed maître de chapelle to Napoleon, whom he had followed to Posen and to Warsaw, and settled finally in Paris, where he continued his career through the various political changes of the time.

Operas
Paër’s principal achievement as a composer lay in opera, although he contributed to the repertoire of many other genres. He wrote some 55 operas, principally, after his first French work, with Italian libretti. He excelled in opera semiseria, notable examples being Griselda, based on Boccaccio, the Gothic rescue opera Camilla, and Agnese.