His father, Antoine de Chézy (1718–1798), was an engineer who finally became director of the École des Ponts et Chaussées.
He was in turn abbot of Chézy in 1682, bishop of Montauban in 1687, councillor to the parlement de Toulouse in 1695, archbishop of Albi in 1703, and finally archbishop of Toulouse in 1719.
Despite amendments in the libretto by Mahler himself (who described von Chézy as a "poetess with a full heart and an empty head") and Max Kalbeck and a few changes in the score by Mahler, there were only five performances.