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How much did the Revolution change musical traditions? In the context of dechristianization, the closure of chapter houses and choir schools which were the only places to provide poor children with some quality musical training, constrained many church musicians to switch to secular stages (such as opera, comic-opera) as did Étienne Fay (1768-1845), a singer-cum-composer born in Tours, who after a respectable career at the Louvois, Favart and Feydeau theatres, ended up coaching his own company with his wife and children in order to put on productions in France, Belgium and Germany. Despite having collaborated with committed writers such as the radical Jacobin Dubuisson, Fay stayed clear of the conflict, remaining loyal to the reforms of Napoleon. His career path and his work, in Gluck’s footsteps, deserve to be lifted from out of the shadows.