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Jules-Henri Vernoy De Saint-Georges
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges (7 November 1799 – 23 December 1875) was a French playwright, who was born and died in Paris. He was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, often working in collaboration with others. Saint-Georges' first work, (1823), a comédie en vaudeville written in collaboration with Alexandre Tardif, was followed by a series of operas and ballets. In 1829 he became manager of the Opéra-Comique at Paris. Among Saint-Georges' more famous libretti are: the ballet ''Giselle'' (with Théophile Gautier) (1841), the opera (1835) for Halévy, the opera (with Jean-François Bayard) (1840) for Donizetti, and the opera for Georges Bizet. Virtually all his opera libretti are for opéras comiques, although (1841), for Halévy, was a grand opera. In all Saint-Georges wrote over seventy stage pieces in collaboration with Eugène Scribe and other authors. He also wrote novels, including . Saint-Georges was notably old-fashioned in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Of France
This article is an overview of the theatre of France. Historic overview Secular French theatre Discussions about the origins of non-religious theatre ("théâtre profane") -- both drama and farce—in the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and tragedy to the 9th century seems unlikely. Most historians place the origin of medieval drama in the church's liturgical dialogues and "tropes". At first simply dramatizations of the ritual, particularly in those rituals connected with Christmas and Easter (see ''Mystery play''), plays were eventually transferred from the monastery church to the chapter house or refectory hall and finally to the open air, and the vernacular was substituted for Latin. In the 12th century one finds the earliest extant passages in French appearing as refrains inserted into liturgical dramas in Latin, such as a Saint Nicholas (patron saint of the student clercs) play and a Saint Stephen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events. The term is particularly applied (sometimes specifically used in its French language equivalent grand opéra, ) to certain productions of the Paris Opéra from the late 1820s to around 1850; 'grand opéra' has sometimes been used to denote the Paris Opéra itself. The term 'grand opera' is also used in a broader application in respect of contemporary or later works of similar monumental proportions from France, Germany, Italy, and other countries. It may also be used colloquially in an imprecise sense to refer to 'serious opera without spoken dialogue'. Origins Paris at the turn of the 19th century drew in many composers, both French and foreign, and especially those of opera. Several Italians working d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hippolyte Monpou
François Louis Hippolyte Monpou (12 January 1804 – 10 August 1841) was a French organist, and composer of songs and operas. Life Monpou was born in Paris in 1804; aged five he became a chorister at Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, and at nine was transferred to Notre Dame. In 1817 he entered as a pupil in the school founded by Alexandre-Étienne Choron, ''Institution royale de musique classique et religieuse'', which he left in 1819 to be the organist at Tours Cathedral. He proved unfit for this post, and returned to Choron, who made him his assistant at his school. Here he had the opportunity of studying the works of ancient and modern composers of all schools, while taking lessons in harmony at the same time from Bernardo Porta, Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard and François-Joseph Fétis. He was organist successively at Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs, Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin and the Sorbonne, and sacred music appeared to be his special vocation until 1828, when he published a pi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugène De Planard
Eugène de Planard (full name: François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard; ; 4 February 1783 – 13 November 1853) was a 19th-century French playwright. He collaborated with Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, Ferdinand Hérold (''Le Pré-aux-clercs'', 1832), Adolphe Adam (''Le Farfadet'', 1852), Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, Michele Enrico Carafa, Jacques-Fromental Halévy (''L’Éclair'', 1835), George Onslow et Ambroise Thomas (''Le Caïd'', 1849 ; ''Le Carnaval de Venise'', 1852). His daughter Eugénie (1818–1874) married the dramatist and librettist Adolphe de Leuven (1802–1884). Works (selection) * 1832 : ''Le Pré-aux-clercs'', opéra comique in three acts after Prosper Mérimée, music by Ferdinand Hérold, Opéra-Comique (15 December) * 1835 : ''L’Éclair'', opéra-comique in three acts with Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, music by Jacques-Fromental Halévy, Opéra-Comique (16 December) * 1837 : ''La Double Échelle'', opéra comique in one act, music by Ambroise Thoma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolphe De Leuven
Adolphe de Leuven (30 September 1802 – 14 April 1884) was a French theatre director and a librettist. Also known as Grenvallet, and Count Adolph Ribbing. He was the illegitimate son of Adolph Ribbing, who was involved in the assassination of Gustav III of Sweden in 1792, and Jeanne-Claude Billard. He took his name as a variation of that of his paternal grandmother, Eva Löwen. He produced over 170 plays and librettos, with operatic settings by Adolphe Adam, Adam including ''Le postillon de Lonjumeau'', Clapisson, Félicien David (''Le Saphir'') and Ambroise Thomas, Thomas.Wright L A"Leuven, Adolphe de"in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', four volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie. London & New York, Macmillan, 1997. He was associated with the Opéra-Comique for fifty years and was director (with Eugène Ritt as administrator) from 1862 to 1870 and co-director with Camille du Locle from 1870-1874. He resigned in protest at the on-stage murder in ''Carmen''.Winston Dean, ''Bizet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand Hérold
Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold (28 January 1791 – 19 January 1833), better known as Ferdinand Hérold (), was a French composer. He was celebrated in his lifetime for his operas, of which he composed more than twenty, but he also wrote ballet music, works for piano and choral pieces. He is best known today for the ballet ''La fille mal gardée#Jean-Pierre Aumer's new version taddo the music of Hérold, La Fille mal gardée'' and the overture to the opera ''Zampa''. Born in Paris to a musical family, Hérold trained at the Paris Conservatoire and won France's premier musical prize, the Prix de Rome in 1812. After a time in Italy he returned to Paris and worked first at the Comédie-Italienne, Théâtre Italien and then at the Paris Opéra, Opéra. He wrote several ballets for the latter, but was best known as a composer of opéra comique. Some of them particularly in his early days, were hampered by poor librettos, but later he had more successes than failures, and his last two ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michele Enrico Carafa
Michele Enrico Francesco Vincenzo Aloisio Paolo Carafa di Colobrano (17 November 1787 – 26 July 1872) was an Italian opera composer. He was born in Naples and studied in Paris with Luigi Cherubini. He was Professor of counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire from 1840 to 1858. One of his notable pupils was Achille Peri. Life and work Michele Enrico was born the second son of Giovanni House of Carafa, Carafa, prince of Colubrano and Duchy_of_Alvito, duke of Alvito, and princess Teresa Lembo. He was given a solid musical education. In 1802, he composed his first opera, ''Il Fantasma'', which was staged at the theater of his father-in-law, prince of Caramanico, in 1805. He moved in 1806 to Paris, where he was taught composition by Luigi Cherubini and piano by Friedrich Kalkbrenner. However, pressured by his father to give up music for a military career, he became a lieutenant of the Hussar#Hussars_of_the_Revolutionary_and_Napoleonic_Wars, hussars in Nap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and '' Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas ''Le postillon de Lonjumeau'' (1836) and ''Si j'étais roi'' (1852) and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!" (Midnight, Christians, 1844, known in English as "O Holy Night"). Adam was the son of a well-known composer and pianist, but his father did not wish him to pursue a musical career. Adam defied his father, and his many operas and ballets earned him a good living until he lost all his money in 1848 in a disastrous bid to open a new opera house in Paris in competition with the Opéra and Opéra-Comique. He recovered, and extended his activities to journalism and teaching. He was appointed as a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, France's principal music academy. Together with his older contemporary Daniel Auber and his teacher Adrien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Rifaut
Victor Rifaut (11 January 1799 – 2 March 1838) was a French musician of the first half of the 19th century specialising in opéra comique. A composer of the second order, he rubbed shoulders with masters of the genre such as Auber and Adolphe Adam and often collaborated with them. Life Rifaut was born in Paris: his father, Pierre Rifaut, double bass at the Orchestre de l'Opéra, gave him his first music lessons before he entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 13 in 1811. There he studied solfeggio and piano, then harmony and composition, and obtained a First Prize for harmony in 1814. In 1820, competing for the Prix de Rome, he obtained a Second Grand Prize for composition with the cantata ''Sophinibe''. The following year, at the same competition, he won the first prize with the cantata ''Diane et Endymion''. He stayed at the Villa Medici in Rome from 20 December 1821 to 31 December 1823, travelling to Naples, Germany and Austria. He befriended the painter Josep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacques Fromental Halévy
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over one hundred identified noble families related to the surname by the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Origins The origin of this surname ultimately originates from the Latin, Jacobus which belongs to an unknown progenitor. Jacobus comes from the Hebrew name, Yaakov, which translates as "one who follows" or "to follow after". Ancient history A French knight returning from the Crusades in the Holy Lands probably adopted the surname from "Saint Jacques" (or "James the Greater"). James the Greater was one of Jesus' Twelve Apostles, and is believed to be the first martyred apostle. Being endowed with this surname was an honor at the time and it is likely that the Church allowed it because of acts during the Crusades. Indeed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as among the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture". Born in Salzburg, in the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie universelle des musiciens'' remains an important source of information today. Family Fétis was born in Mons, Hainaut, eldest son of Antoine-Joseph Fetis and Elisabeth Desprets, daughter of a famous chirurgical doctor. He had 9 brothers and sisters. His father was titular organist of the noble chapter of Saint-Waltrude. His grandfather was an organ manufacturer. He was trained as a musician by his father and played at young age on the Choir organ of Saint Waltrude. In October 1806 he married to Adélaïde-Louise-Catherine Robert, daughter of the French politician Pierre-François-Joseph Robert and Louise de Keralio, friend of Robespierre. They had 2 sons : most famous was Édouard Fétis, (1812-1909), his eldest son who helped his father with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
