Léon Pillet

Léon Pillet (6 December 1803 – 20 March 1868), was a 19th-century French journalist, civil servant, and director of the Paris Opera from 1840 to 1847. A political appointee, he was probably the least successful director of the Paris Opera in the 19th century.

Born Raymond-François-Léon Pillet in Paris, he was the son of Fabien Pillet (1772–1855), who was a journalist and French administrator. After attending the Lycée Napoléon (now the Lycée Henri-IV), Léon Pillet continued his studies in law and joined the offices of an attorney by the name of Mauguin.

He took part in the founding of the Nouveau Journal de Paris in 1827, serving mainly as its drama critic. Later, when the suppression of the privileges of the major journals gave more leeway to the enterprise, he became its editor, transforming it into a political newspaper and embracing the liberal cause. In July 1830 he signed the journalists' protest against government restrictions on the press, and during the three days 26, 27, and 28 July, his journal, now known simply as the Journal de Paris, was published several times each day. Having supported the change to a more conservative government which occurred on 13 March 1831, the paper was taken over by venture capitalists who were favorable to the new regime, but Pillet stayed on as director and supported ministerial policies.

In 1834 Pillet received a government post as maître des requêtes en service extraordinaire and appears in the Almanach royal beginning in 1836 as the Royal Commissioner and Secretary of the Special Commission for the Conservatoire and Royal Theatres. In this position Pillet was the administrator with responsibility for the Paris Opera.

Pillet also had aspirations as a librettist. During his time as Commissioner, he cowrote the libretto for the 3-act opera La vendetta with Adolphe Vannois, for which Henri Ruolz-Montchal^[] provided the music. The work was produced at the Opera on 11 September 1839, but was poorly received. It was withdrawn after its seventh performance on 11 October for revision and was compressed to two acts. On 22 January 1840 it was performed in its new version on a double-bill with the 3-act ballet La Somnambule, but ticket sales came to a paltry 1,237 francs and 30 centimes, and it was dropped, after its sixth performance in its revised form on 1 May 1840. Pillet by this time had also written libretti for a series of vaudevilles.

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