GAETANO APPOLINO BALDASSARE

VESTRIS (1729-18o8)  , French ,ballet dancer, was born in Florence and made his debut at the Opera in 1749 . By 1751 his success and his vanity had grown to such a point that he is reported to have said, " There are but three great men in Europe the king of Prussia, Voltaire and I." He was an excellent mimic as well as dancer . From 1770 to 1776 he was master and composer of ballets, retiring, in favour of Noverre, with a pension . Two other pensions fell to him, when he gave up his positions of first dancer and of first dancer of court ballets, amounting in all to 9200 livres . Vestris married a dancer, Anna Heinel (1753-1808), of German origin, who had a wonderful success at the Opera . He reappeared at the age of seventy-one on the occasion of his grandson's debut . By the dancer Mile . Allard, Vestris had a son, Marie Auguste Vestris Allard (1760-1842), also a ballet dancer, who surpassed his father, if possible, in both talent and vanity . His son, Auguste Armand Vestris (b. c 1795), who took to the same profession, made his debut at the Opera in 1800, but left Paris for Italy and never reappeared in France . Gaetano's brother, Angelo Vestris (173o-18o9), married Marie Rose Gourgaud, the sister of the actor Dugazon (q.v.) .