SEARCH RESULTS FOR: Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy
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(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 ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1799–1862, French Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy, who was born in Paris, studied there with several composers – of whom the most influential was Cherubini. Success at the opera house was rather long in coming, however, and Halévy had to endure rejections and failures before scoring his first success with Clari (1828), which was written for the Spanish mezzo-soprano ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1834–1908, French Ludovic Halévy was the nephew of the French composer Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) and first made his name as a novelist and playwright. Halévy worked as a civil servant until 1865, when he retired to write full time. By then he had already become friendly with Jacques Offenbach and in 1858, together with Hector Crémieux (1828–92), he ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

‘Fair Helen’ Composed: 1864 Premiered: 1864, Paris Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy Act I Since Pâris awarded Vénus the golden apple, her cult has become more popular than Jupiter’s. Hélène, wife of King Ménélas of Sparta, is waiting for Pâris to come and claim her. Disguised as a shepherd, Pâris enlists the help of ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ Premiered: 1881, Paris Libretto by Jules Barbier after the play by Barbier and Michel Carré Act I Hoffmann has neglected poetry in his search for love. His muse is transformed into a companion named Nicklausse in order to protect him. Hoffmann’s latest love, Stella, an opera singer, is also admired by Counsellor Lindorf. ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ Composed: 1858; rev. 1874 Premiered: 1874, Paris Libretto by Crémieux and Halévy Act I Eurydice cannot abide her violin virtuoso husband Orphée. She would rather die than be bored to death. Jealous that she is seeing too much of the beekeeper Aristée, he tells her about the snakes in Aristée’s cornfield. She goes to warn ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Zhak Är’-ka-delt) c. 1505–68 French composer Although probably of French birth, Arcadelt spent much of his adulthood in the great Italian cities of Florence, Rome and Venice. He is best known for madrigals (although he composed Masses, motets and chansons as well), including some of the genre’s most precious gems. They are almost all easy to sing, but ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Zhak Shamp-yôn’ Syör da Shan-bun-yâr) c. 1601–72 French composer Chambonnières is generally considered the founder of the French harpsichord school. He developed a style in harpsichord writing adapted from the lute idiom of style brisé, characterized by broken, arpeggiated chordal textures. In 1641, he began a twice-weekly series of concerts, later inheriting his father’s position as gentilhomme ordinaire of ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Zhak E-bâr’) 1890–1962 French composer Ibert won the coveted Prix de Rome, and shocked those who awarded it with the non-academic levity of the pieces he wrote in Rome. His best-known work is the uproarious Divertissement (1930), but it has distracted attention from an accomplished opera (L’Aiglon, ‘The Young Eagle’, 1937, written in collaboration with Honegger), some fine ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1819–80, French Jacques Offenbach had an acute sense of theatre and an incisive understanding of how to cater for French tastes. He was 14 when his father sent him to Paris, where Jews were freer than they were in Germany. Offenbach became a cellist, performing in fashionable salons, and finally, in 1855, became famous. He ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Zhak Of’-fen-bakh) 1819–80 French composer Offenbach’s tuneful, witty and often outrageous satires on Greek mythology and the Second Empire enthralled the French public, including the Emperor Louis-Napoleon. After only one year at the Paris Conservatoire, he joined the Opéra-Comique orchestra, studying with Halévy, and toured as a virtuoso cellist. After conducting at the Théâtre Français, he ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1880–1953 French violinist Thibaud studied at the Paris Conservatoire and began his European career with the Concerts Colonne. He is best known for his membership of the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio, but was also a distinguished interpreter of the sonata and concerto repertory. Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Leif Ove Andsnes | Contemporary | Classical ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1712–78, Swiss Best known as the Swiss political philosopher with a crucial influence on Romanticism and the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was also a composer, author and musicologist. In his most famous work, Le devin du village (‘The Village Soothsayer’, 1752), Rousseau’s small talent confined him to simple melodies with simple accompaniments. What was really important was ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Sharl Goo-no) 1818–93 French composer Gounod is best known as the composer of one of the most popular French lyric operas, Faust. His teachers at the Paris Conservatoire were the opera composers Jacques-François-Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) and Jean François Le Sueur (1760–1837) and in 1839 he won the coveted Prix de Rome. Alongside much sacred music, such as the florid ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1814–97, French Cornélie Falcon’s singing career was brief. At 18 she made her debut at the Paris Opéra in 1832, singing the role of Alice in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s (1791–1864) Robert le diable. However, Falcon was a mezzo-soprano who wanted to be a soprano and ruined her full, resonant voice by forcing it too high. By 1838 her ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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