- Thomas Hales (dramatist)
Thomas Hales ("c."
1740 –December 27 ,1780 ) was a British-born Frenchdramatist andlibrettist . He was from an Irish expatriot family inGloucestershire and joined theRoyal Navy during theSeven Years' War . He settled inJamaica for a short time and then inHavana ,Cuba , before moving toEurope to tavel. He lived inSwitzerland andItaly both before arriving inParis ,France , in 1770, where he was bankrupted (reportedly by pursuit of women and drunkenness).He learned French quickly and became thoroughly fluent. He met the composer
Grétry in 1775 and began to work with him as a librettist. Their first collaboration was "Les fausses apparences, ou,L'amant jaloux ." The opera was a hit, and Hales would write four more plays/librettos in the coming years. In1777 he wrote a short fiction entitled "Le roman de mon oncle." In 1778, he worked with Gréty on "Le jugement de Midas ," which was based on "Midas" by the Irish playwrightKane O'Hara (1762). The same year, the two produced "Les fausses apparences" as a comicopera . The play was partially based onSusanna Centlivre 's "The Wonder: a Woman Keeps a Secret" of 1714. The third opera was "Les evénements imprévus" in 1779, which was inspired by an unknown Italian original. It would inspireGeorge Colman the Younger 's "Gay Deceivers" of 1804. Finally, inprose , Hales wrote "Gilles ravisseur" (published in 1781).Hales died of a chest infection in Paris. His mistress, Madame Bianchi, an Italian actress, had left him to return to Italy, and he apparently suffered complications from a military injury.
References
*cite book
last = Williams
first = David
editor = Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds.
chapter = Thomas Hales
title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
volume = 24
pages = 556–557
address = London
publisher =Oxford University Press
year = 2004
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