Albert Grisar

Albert Grisar (born in Antwerp on December 25, 1808 – died in Asnières on June 15, 1869) was a Belgian composer. Grisar's family had intended for him to pursue a tradesman's career, but he defied their wishes to devote himself to music. He studied in Antwerp with Joseph Janssens, in Paris under Anton Reicha, and in the mid-1840s in Naples with Saverio Mercadante. Grisar was a successful comic opera composer, first winning success in Brussels in 1833 and in Paris later in the decade. He collaborated with Flotow on L'eau merveilleuse (1839) and with François-Adrien Boieldieu on L'opéra à la cour (1840). When he received a grant from the Belgian government in 1840 to study music of Belgian composers in Italy, he instead used his time in Rome and Naples to study compositional techniques of the comic opera. His Parisian works of the late 1840s and early 1850s were particularly well received by audiences.