Gavaudan, Jean-Baptiste-Sauveur

Gavaudan, Jean-Baptiste-Sauveur (8 August 1772, Salon, Provence; 10 May 1840, Paris), vocalist, spent the first years of his life at Nîmes, where his father was attached to a religious community as a musician. When his older sisters went to Paris to sing at the Opéra, he followed them to the capital. Unfortunately his father died when he was only seven years old, and he had to enlist as a cabin boy in the navy to survive. He returned to Paris from his tour of duty in 1785, and he resumed his…