François Lays
François Lay, better known under the stage name Lays (14 February 1758 – 30 March 1831), was a French baritone and tenor opera singer. Originally destined for a career in the church, Lays was recruited by the Paris Opéra in 1779. He soon became a leading member of the company, in spite of quarrels with the management. Lays enthusiastically welcomed the French Revolution and became involved in politics with the encouragement of his friend Bertrand Barère. Barère's downfall led to Lays being imprisoned briefly, but he soon won back the public and secured the patronage of Napoleon, at whose coronation and second wedding he sang. This association with the Emperor caused him trouble when the Bourbon monarchy was restored and Lays's final years were darkened by disputes over his pension, mounting debts, the death of his only son and his wife's illness. After a career spanning more than four decades, he died in poverty.
François Lays
It was on Barère's prompting that Lays decided to return to his native Gascony in 1793 as a propagandist for the new Reign of Terror. He was accompanied by his future wife, a young unemployed diamond-polisher named Marie Barbé. In Girondin Bordeaux, his political alignment with the Montagnards provoked such public hostility that he was forced to slip out of the city without even being able to complete his debut performance at the local theatre. Things went much better in his native region, the newly established département of Hautes-Pyrénées, where the Barère clan were politically dominant and where Lays received a hero's welcome. He returned to Paris in mid-July via Toulouse, thus avoiding the hostile Bordeaux. Back in the capital, he delivered a much applauded speech in front of the Commune of Paris.