Auguste Mermet (5 January 1810 – 4 July 1889) was a French opera composer.

Biography

Born in Brussels, Mermet was the son of an officer in the

Grande Armée ''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...

and originally intended to have a military career, but after learning to play the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

and later privately studying music composition with Jean-François Le Sueur and Fromental Halévy, abandoned the army in favour of music.Fétis 1880
pp. 212–213
MacDonald 1992. In his youth, he already composed a two-act ''

opéra-comique The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...

'', ''La Bannière du roi'', with a libretto by

Pierre Carmouche Pierre Carmouche (9 April 1797 - 9 December 1868) was a French playwright and chansonnier. He wrote more than 200 successful plays, comedies, comédies en vaudevilles and texts for opéras comiques, in collaboration with diverse authors - Braz ...

, which was first performed at Versailles in April 1835. Alexandre Soumet then accepted to transform for him his tragedy about Saul into a libretto of ''drame lyrique''. Mermet composed the score for this work, which was performed without success at the

Paris Opera The Paris Opera (, ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be ...

in 1846 under the title of ''Le Roi David'' with Rosine Stoltz as David. His ''Roland à Ronceveaux'', for which he wrote the libretto and the music, was staged in 1864 after

Napoléon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

transferred the management of the Opéra to the theatre. This work had received 65 performances by 1867, a success at least partly due to its patriotic flavour and spectacular staging. Mermet also composed a four-act opera, ''Jeanne d'Arc'', to his own libretto based on a play by Jules Barbier, which was the first premiere to be presented at the

Palais Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

(5 April 1876). Gabrielle Krauss sang the title role, and

Jean-Baptiste Faure Jean-Baptiste Faure () (15 January 1830 – 9 November 1914) was a French operatic baritone and art collector who also composed several classical songs. Singing career Faure was born in Moulins. A choirboy in his youth, he entered the Pari ...

was Charles VII, the ballet was choreographed by

Louis Mérante Louis Alexandre Mérante (23 July 1828–Courbevoie, 17 July 1887) was a dancer and choreographer, the ''Maître de Ballet'' (First Balletmaster/Chief Choreographer) of the Paris Opera Ballet at the Salle Le Peletier until its destruction by fire i ...

, but the opera received only 15 performances, the last on 27 November.Wolff 1962, p. 125. Tchaikovsky used Mermet's libretto as one of the sources for his opera '' The Maid of Orleans''.

Hugh Macdonald Hugh John Macdonald (born 31 January 1940 in Newbury, Berkshire) is an English musicologist chiefly known for his work within the music of the 19th century, especially in France. He has been general editor of the ''Hector Berlioz: New Edition of ...

, writing in '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', described his music as "direct, attractive, unadventurous, and noisy" and as modeled on Meyerbeer and Halévy.

Selected works

* ''La Bannière du roi'' (April 1835, Versailles) * ''Le Roi David'' (3 June 1846,

, Salle Le Peletier) * ''Roland à Roncevaux'' (3 October 1864, Paris Opéra, Salle Le Peletier) * ''Jeanne d'Arc'' (5 April 1876, Paris Opéra,

)

Bibliography

* David Cairns: ''Berlioz'', volume 2: ''Servitude and Greatness, 1832–1869'' (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1999); . * François-Joseph Fétis: ''Biographie universelle des musiciens'', supplement, volume 2 (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1862)
View
at Google Books. * Hugh Macdonald: "Mermet, Auguste", in

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

(ed.): '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', four volumes (London: Macmillan, 1992), , vol. 3, p. 343. * Stéphane Wolff: ''L'Opéra au Palais Garnier (1875–1962)'' (Paris: Deposé au journal L'Entr'acte, 1962; reprint Paris: Slatkine, 1983); .

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mermet, Auguste 1810 births 1889 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians French classical composers French male classical composers French opera composers Male opera composers Musicians from Brussels Pupils of Fromental Halévy