Giraud, Pierre-François-Félix-Joseph

Giraud, Pierre-François-Félix-Joseph (20 September 1764, Bacqueville; 26 February 1821, Paris), librettist, was born into an obscure Norman family and promised to the priesthood. After the suppression of the religious order that he had joined, he espoused the revolutionary cause with uninhibited enthusiasm even throughout the Terror. He held positions with the government before and after the death of Robespierre, and he was inevitably prescribed for deportation by Napoleon, but public opinion…