Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer

French composer. He moved to Paris in 1725, where he taught singing and harpsichord; he was maître de musique at the Opéra (1730-33) and lessee and director of the Concert spirituel from 1748. In 1753 he bought from Rebel and Bury the reversion of the post of maître de musique de la chambre du roi, and was appointed in the same year composer and leader of the orchestra of the Opéra. Royer's stage works include Pyrrhus (Opéra, 1730); Almasis (Versailles, 1748); Myrtil et Zélie (Versailles, 1750).