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Lafont was born at Paris, December 7, 1781, and received his first lessons from his mother, who afterward placed him under her brother, Berthaume. Under his care he made a successful concert tour through Germany and other countries as early as 1792, after which he returned to Paris and settled down to study under Rudolf Kreutzer.
In this city, three years afterward, occurred his interesting musical duel with Lafont, the well-known French violinist. Paganini was then at Genoa, and, hearing of Lafont's presence at Milan, at once hastened to that city to hear him play. "His performance," said Pagani-ni, "pleased me exceedingly."
[Footnote 2: Henri Becque's two best-known plays aptly exemplify the two types of opening. In Les Corbeaux we have almost an entire act of calm domesticity in which the only hint of coming trouble is an allusion to Vigneron's attacks of vertigo. In La Parisienne Clotilde and Lafont are in the thick of a vehement quarrel over a letter. It proceeds for ten minutes or so, at the end of which Clotilde says, "Prenez garde, voil
In a very short time "le petit Liszt" was the great Paris sensation. The old noblesse tried to spoil him with flattery, the Duchesse de Berri drugged him with bonbons, the Duke of Orleans called him the "little Mozart." He gave private concerts, at which Herz, Moscheles, Lafont, and De Beriot, assisted. Rossini would sit by his side at the piano, and applaud. He was a "miracle."
Lafont, 1996 states on page 755 that according to Louis Marie Prudhomme there were 31 000 victims at Lyons. Archives Nationales, AF. II., 44. The representatives on mission wanted to do the same thing with Marseilles. The National Convention shall be requested to give it another name. Meanwhile it shall remain nameless and be thus known."
Several violinists are found under two schools, as for instance, Pugnani, who was first a pupil of Tartini and later of Somis, and Teresa Milanollo, pupil of Lafont and of De Bériot, who appear under different schools.
"Mémoires de la Reine de France," par M. Lafont d'Aussonne, p. 42. See her letters to Mercy, December 26th, 1784, and to the emperor, December 31st, 1784, and February 4th, 1785, Arneth, p. 64, et seq. "J'ai été réellement touchée, de la raison et de la fermeté que le roi a mises dans cette rude séance." Marie Antoinette to Joseph II., August 22d, 1785, Arneth, p. 93.
Lafont is an excellent actor and a very fine looking man, he has performed in London; Lepeintre yields to few men for the very general estimation in which his talents are held; Levassor is a man of very gentlemanly appearance, not at all wanting in assurance, and always at his ease in every rôle he is destined to fill.
And then Rinaldo how well the name suits Lafont! By giving him black whiskers, tightly-fitting trousers, a cloak, a moustache, a pistol, and a peaked hat if the manager of the Vaudeville Theatre were but bold enough to pay for a few newspaper articles, that would secure fifty performances, and six thousand francs for the author's rights, if only I were to cry it up in my columns. "To proceed:
Then followed a 'Russian Air, with variations, by Lafont, and I finished the concert with my variations called 'Le Streghe. Lafont probably surpassed me in tone; but the applause which followed my efforts convinced me that I did not suffer by comparison." There seems to be no question that the victory remained with Paganini.
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