Méhul, Etienne-Henri (24 June 1763, Givet; 18 October 1817, Paris), composer, was one of the foremost composers of the period of the Revolution and Napoleon. He wrote the scores for about 30 operas and comic operas between 1790 and 1810. The son of a cook who took his first lessons from a blind and impoverished musician, he became organist at the church of the Récollets in Givet at age ten and was soon able to study under a more competent organist called Hanser. The boy lived in the monastery…