Edmée Sophie Gail, née Garre, was born August 28th 1775 as daughter of the physician and surgeon
Claude-Francois Garre (1730–1799) in Paris. From early childhood on she proved to be a
good pianist and published her first songs at the age of fourteen. She studied music theory with
Francois-Joseph Fétis, married at the age of nineteen philosopher and professor Jean-Baptiste
Gail who was significantly older than her and was already divorced in 1801.
Student and concert tours as a singer let her to southern France, Italy, England, Germany and
Spain. Especially the impressions of her voyage to Spain had great influence on her compositions.
Between 1808 and 1810 her salon was meeting point of many famous singers in Paris. One of her
four sons is the writer Francisque Gail. Sophie Gail wrote many songs and romances, as well as
four one-act operas (Les deux jaloux, Demoiselle de Launay dans la bastille, Angela ou L’atelier
de Jean Cousin, La Sérénade) of which Les deux jaloux (“The two jealous”) from 1813 is the best
known and was played at the Opera Comique throughout the first half of the nineteenth century.
