Personalities | Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy | Early Romantic | Classical
(Zhak Fran-swa’ Fro-mon-tal A-la-ve’) 1799–1862
French composer
Halévy was born in France and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. From 1811 he studied with the composer Cherubini, who was a great influence on him. Halévy won the Prix de Rome in 1819 and taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1827 (where his pupils included Bizet and Gounod). A prolific writer, Halévy composed 40 operas; however, it was his first serious grand opera, La Juive (‘The Jewish Girl’, 1835), that proved to be his greatest success and this is the work on which his enduring fame still rests. Halévy’s style embodies a typical fusion of French and Italian operatic characteristics, and his best work was esteemed by other Romantic composers including Berlioz and Wagner. He also composed vocal works and a small number of instrumental pieces.
Recommended Recording:
La Juive, soloists, Philharmonia (dir) Antonio de Almeida (Philips/Decca)
Introduction | Early Romantic | Classical
Personalities | Anthony Philip Heinrich | Early Romantic | Classical
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