Alexandre Charles Lecocq (3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his
opérette
This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names.
"Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...
s and
opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...
in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870s and early 1880s, before the changing musical fashions of the late 19th century made his style of composition less popular. His few serious works include the opera ''
Plutus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Plutus (; grc-gre, Πλοῦτος, Ploûtos, wealth) is the god and the personification of wealth, and the son of the goddess of agriculture Demeter and the mortal Iasion.
Family
Plutus is most commonl ...
'' (1886), which was not a success, and the ballet ''
Le cygne
''Le cygne'', , or ''The Swan'', is the 13th and penultimate movement of ''The Carnival of the Animals'' by Camille Saint-Saëns. Originally scored for solo cello accompanied by two pianos, it has been arranged and transcribed for many instru ...
'' (1899). His only piece to survive in the regular modern operatic repertory is his 1872 opéra comique ''
La fille de Madame Angot
''La fille de Madame Angot'' (''Madame Angot's Daughter'') is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq with words by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning. It was premiered in Brussels in December 1872 and soon became a success in ...
'' (Mme Angot's Daughter). Others of his more than forty stage works receive occasional revivals.
After study at the
Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
, Lecocq shared the first prize with
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
in an operetta-writing contest organised in 1856 by Offenbach. Lecocq's next successful composition was an
opéra-bouffe, ''
Fleur-de-Thé
''Fleur-de-Thé'' (Teaflower) is a three-act opéra bouffe with music by Charles Lecocq and words by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot. The story centres on a French bar-keeper, who is saved from a bigamous marriage to an aristocratic young local by t ...
'' (Tea-flower), twelve years later. His comic operas ''
Les cent vierges
''Les cent vierges'' (The Hundred Maidens) is an opérette in three acts, with music by Charles Lecocq and a libretto by Clairville (Louis-François Nicolaïe), Clairville, Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru. It was first produced at the Théâtre des ...
'' (The Hundred Virgins, 1872), ''La fille de Madame Angot'' (1872) and ''
Giroflé-Girofla
''Giroflé-Girofla'' is an opéra bouffe in three acts with music by Charles Lecocq. The French libretto was by Albert Vanloo and Eugène Leterrier. The story, set in 13th century Spain, concerns twin brides, one of whom is abducted by pirates. ...
'' (1874) were all successes and established his international reputation. Critics remarked on the elegance of the music in Lecocq's best works. His other popular pieces in the 1870s included ''
La petite mariée'' (The Little Bride, 1875) and ''
Le petit duc
''Le petit duc'' (''The little duke'') is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French language, French libretto was by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
Performance history
The opera was first presented at the Théâtre de la R ...
'' (The Little Duke, 1878). Although a few of his works in the early 1880s were well-received, and he continued composing for more than two decades afterwards, his later works never achieved the same admiration.
Life and career
Early years
Lecocq was born in Paris, the son of a copyist at the Commercial Court of the Seine.
["Charles Lecocq (1832–1918)"]
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 ...
, Paris. In French. Retrieved 20 September 2018 His father was not highly paid, but supported a family of five children. As a boy Lecocq suffered from a hip condition that obliged him to use crutches throughout his life.
[ His first musical instrument was the ]flageolet
The flageolet is a woodwind instrument and a member of the fipple flute family which includes recorders and tin whistles. Its invention was erroneously ascribed to the 16th-century Sieur Juvigny in 1581. There are two basic forms of the instrume ...
; a music teacher, discerning his talent, persuaded his parents to buy a piano. By the age of 16 Lecocq was giving private piano lessons which funded the lessons he himself was taking in harmony.[
He was admitted into the ]Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
in 1849, studying harmony under François Bazin, organ with François Benoist
François Benoist (10 September 1794 – 6 May 1878) was a French organist, composer, and pedagogue.
Benoist was born in Nantes. He took his first music lessons under Georges Scheuermann. Benoist studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris and ...
and composition with Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy (; 27 May 179917 March 1862), was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera '' La Juive''.
Early career
Halévy was born in Paris, son of the cantor ...
. Among his classmates were Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
and Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
; the latter became his lifelong friend. At the end of his second year he gained the second prize in counterpoint and was ''premier accessit'' in Benoist's organ class. He thought little of Halévy as a teacher,[ and was not inspired to pursue the top musical prize, the ]Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...
. He would not, in the event, have been able to do so, because in 1854 he had to leave the Conservatoire prematurely to help support his parents, by giving lessons and playing for dance classes.[ Andrew Lamb]
"Lecocq, (Alexandre) Charles"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 September 2018
First success
At the time when Lecocq left the Conservatoire, the genre of popular musical theatre known as opérette
This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names.
"Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...
was becoming popular. It had been introduced by the composer Hervé
Hervé is a French language, French masculine given name of Breton language, Breton origin, from the name of the 6th-century Breton Saint Hervé. The common latinization of the name is Herveus (also ''Haerveus''), an early (8th-century) latinizati ...
and its principal exponent was Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (, also , , ; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the Romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera '' ...
, who presented his works at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens
The Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens () is a Parisian theatre founded in 1855 by the composer Jacques Offenbach for the performance of opéra bouffe and operetta. The current theatre is located in the 2nd arrondissement at 4 rue Monsigny with an ...
from 1855. In 1856 he organised an open competition for aspiring composers.[Curtiss, Mina]
"Bizet, Offenbach, and Rossini"
''The Musical Quarterly'', Vol. 40, No. 3 (July 1954), pp. 350–359 A jury of French composers and playwrights including Daniel Auber
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (; 29 January 178212 May 1871) was a French composer and director of the Paris Conservatoire.
Born into an artistic family, Auber was at first an amateur composer before he took up writing operas professionally when ...
, Halévy, Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas ''Mignon'' (1866) and ''Hamlet'' (1868).
Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the Conservatoire de ...
, Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
and Eugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...
considered 78 entries; the five short-listed entrants were all asked to set a libretto, ''Le docteur miracle'', written by Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy (1 January 1834 – 7 May 1908) was a French author and playwright, best known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and on the works of Jacques Offenbach.
Biography
Ludovic Halévy was born in P ...
and Léon Battu. The joint winners were Bizet and Lecocq. Richard Traubner
Richard Traubner (November 24, 1946 – February 25, 2013) was an American journalist, author, operetta scholar and historian, and lecturer on theatre and (mostly musical) film. His best-known book, ''Operetta: A Theatrical History'', was first pu ...
comments in his history of operetta that Bizet's version has survived better than Lecocq's, which is forgotten.[Traubner, p. 71] Bizet became, and remained, a devoted friend of Offenbach; Lecocq and Offenbach took a dislike to one another, and their rivalry in later years was not altogether friendly.[ Lecocq's setting of ''Le Docteur Miracle'', was given eleven performances at Offenbach's theatre, but this early success was followed by eleven years of obscurity and routine work as a teacher, accompanist and ]répétiteur
A (from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. A feminine form, , also appears but is comparatively rare.
Opera
In opera, a is the person ...
.[
Between 1859 and 1866 Lecocq wrote six one-act works, which were presented at the Folies-Nouvelles, the ]Théâtre des Folies-Marigny
The Théâtre des Folies-Marigny, a former Parisian theatre with a capacity of only 300 spectators, was built in 1848 by the City of Paris for a magician named Lacaze and was originally known as the Salle Lacaze. It was located at the east end o ...
, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal
The Théâtre du Palais-Royal () is a 750-seat Parisian theatre at 38 rue de Montpensier, located at the northwest corner of the Palais-Royal in the Galerie de Montpensier at its intersection with the Galerie de Beaujolais.
Brief history
...
and elsewhere, without making any great impression.[ The composer's fortunes improved when he was engaged by Fromental Halévy's nephew William Busnach at the ]Théâtre de l'Athénée
The Théâtre de l'Athénée is a theatre at 7 rue Boudreau, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Renovated in 1996 and classified a historical monument, the Athénée inherits an artistic tradition marked by the figure of Louis Jouvet who dire ...
, for which Lecocq wrote the music for his first two-act piece, an opéra-bouffe called ''L’amour et son carquois'' (Cupid and His Quiver) presented in January 1868. In April of that year he had his first substantial success with ''Fleur-de-Thé
''Fleur-de-Thé'' (Teaflower) is a three-act opéra bouffe with music by Charles Lecocq and words by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot. The story centres on a French bar-keeper, who is saved from a bigamous marriage to an aristocratic young local by t ...
'' (Tea-flower) a three-act bouffe playing on the fashionable interest in the Far East. The piece was successfully given in London and New York in 1871.
1870s
The Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871 temporarily interrupted Lecocq's rise, and he was gloomy about his prospects after it.[ In the longer term the war worked to his advantage, as it brought about the fall of the ]Second Empire Second Empire may refer to:
* Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783
* Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396)
* Second French Empire (1852–1870)
** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...
, with which Offenbach had been closely identified in the popular mind, and in the aftermath of France's crushing defeat by Prussia, Offenbach's German birth made him unpopular in some quarters.[Ashley, Tim]
"The cursed opera"
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 9 January 2004 While Offenbach struggled to re-establish himself in Parisian theatres, Lecocq began to occupy his place.
After the outbreak of the war Lecocq moved temporarily to Brussels, where he premiered ''Les cent vierges
''Les cent vierges'' (The Hundred Maidens) is an opérette in three acts, with music by Charles Lecocq and a libretto by Clairville (Louis-François Nicolaïe), Clairville, Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru. It was first produced at the Théâtre des ...
'' (The Hundred Virgins, 1872), ''La fille de Madame Angot
''La fille de Madame Angot'' (''Madame Angot's Daughter'') is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq with words by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning. It was premiered in Brussels in December 1872 and soon became a success in ...
'' (Madame Angot's Daughter, 1872) and ''Giroflé-Girofla
''Giroflé-Girofla'' is an opéra bouffe in three acts with music by Charles Lecocq. The French libretto was by Albert Vanloo and Eugène Leterrier. The story, set in 13th century Spain, concerns twin brides, one of whom is abducted by pirates. ...
'' (1874), all great successes there and then in Paris and elsewhere. ''La fille de Madame Angot'' was most conspicuous of these successes. At the Parisian premiere in February 1873, Saint-Saëns said, "It's much more serious than you think; it's a success without parallel!"[ On the first night in Paris every number was encored.][Traubner, p. 74] The work ran for 411 performances in Paris and was given in 103 cities and towns in France, and theatres in other countries: its London premiere was within three months of the first Paris performances. In 1874 the London paper ''The Morning Post
''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''.
History
The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...
'' commented that twelve months earlier scarcely anyone in England had heard of Lecocq, but now it was doubtful if there was anyone "who has not played sung or whistled one or more of Lecocq's charming melodies". So great was the composer's popularity as a composer of operétte that he felt obliged to use a pen-name ("Georges Stern") for his serious music such as his ''Miettes musicales'', Op. 21 (''Musical crumbs'').[
The 1870s were Lecocq's most fruitful decade. Sheet-music sales of arrangements from his operettas sold prodigiously.][ Settling once again in Paris, he formed a productive partnership with ]Victor Koning
Victor Koning (4 April 1842 – 1 October 1894) was a French playwright and librettist.
Biography
He authored theatre plays, mostly comedies and comédie en vaudeville and successful operettas libretti including ''La Fille de madame Ango ...
, co-librettist of ''La fille de Madame Angot'' and now the proprietor of the Théâtre de la Renaissance
The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on th ...
. Lecocq consolidated his reputation as a composer of comic opera with two more long-running pieces, '' La petite mariée'' (The Little Bride, 1875) and ''Le petit duc
''Le petit duc'' (''The little duke'') is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French language, French libretto was by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.
Performance history
The opera was first presented at the Théâtre de la R ...
'' (The Little Duke, 1878); they have remained in the French, though not the international, operetta repertory.[ For ''Le petit duc'' he worked with Offenbach's favoured librettists, ]Henri Meilhac
Henri Meilhac (23 February 1830 – 6 July 1897) was a French dramatist and opera librettist, best known for his collaborations with Ludovic Halévy on Georges Bizet's ''Carmen'' and on the works of Jacques Offenbach, as well as Jules Massenet's ...
and Ludovic Halévy,[Letellier, p. 239] which, in Traubner's words, "left no doubt that the composer had succeeded Offenbach".[Traubner, p. 78] Nonetheless, by this time Offenbach had recovered much of his pre-war popularity with Parisian audiences, and Lecocq's pre-eminence was briefly threatened by the older composer's successful ''Madame Favart
''Madame Favart'' is an opéra comique, or operetta, in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot.
Performance history
After defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870) ended Napoleon III' ...
'' (1878) and ''La fille du tambour-major
''La fille du tambour-major'' (''The Drum Major's Daughter'') is an opéra comique in three acts, with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot. It was one of the composer's last works, premiered less than a year befor ...
'' (1879), but the latter was Offenbach's last completed work and he died in 1880.
Later years
At the turn of the decade Lecocq had a year's break from composition as a result of illness and domestic problems.[ He returned with the opéra comique ''Janot'' (1881), which was a failure. Lecocq had Meilhac and Halévy as his librettists, but all three collaborators were hampered by Koning's insistence on a plot revolving around his star singer, ]Jeanne Granier
Jeanne Granier (31 March 1852 – 18 or 19 December 1939) was a French soprano, born and died in Paris, whose career was centred on the French capital.Gänzl K. Jeanne Granier. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and ...
, in a breeches role as a wandering minstrel boy, a hackneyed device which audiences regarded as a cliché. The failure led to the break-up of Lecocq's association with Koning and the Renaissance.[ He transferred his allegiance to the ]Théâtre des Nouveautés
The Théâtre des Nouveautés ("Theatre of the New") is a Parisian theatre built in 1921 and located at 24 boulevard Poissonnière (Paris, 9th arr.). The name was also used by several earlier Parisian theatre companies and their buildings, begin ...
where five of his next operas were staged. His choice caused some surprise, as the theatre, run by the actor-manager Jules Brasseur
Jules Brasseur was a French actor and singer, born 1829 in Paris and died in the same city in 1890, who achieved considerable popular success in Paris and around France in the second half of the 19th century.
Life and career
Born Jules-Victor- ...
, had no reputation for opérette
This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names.
"Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most c ...
or opéra-bouffe, and was distinguished by the sometimes indelicate content of its productions.["The Drama in Paris", ''The Era'', 12 November 1881, p. 5] The most successful of Lecocq's works for the Nouveautés were the opéra bouffe ''Le jour et la nuit
''Day and Night'' (french: Le Jour et la Nuit) is a 1997 French drama film directed by public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy and starring Alain Delon, Lauren Bacall, Arielle Dombasle and Francisco Rabal. The film follows a French author who fled ...
'' (Day and Night, 1881) and the opéra comique '' Le coeur et la main'' (The Heart and the Hand, 1882), both variations on his familiar theme of wedding nights disrupted by farcical complications.[Pourvoyeur, Robert]
"Jour et la nuit (Le)"
''Opérette – Théâtre musical'', Académie Nationale de l'Opérette. Retrieved 28 October 2018 In ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the History of music, ...
'', Andrew Lamb describes these as Lecocq's last real successes.[
Unlike his predecessor, Offenbach, and his successor, ]André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty opéra comique, opéras comiques, opérettes and other stage wo ...
, Lecocq could not, or would not, alter his style to meet changing public tastes.[ Lamb writes that he accepted that fashion in comic opera had changed, and he turned to other genres. In 1886 his opera, ''Plutus'', a "morality" based on a play by ]Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...
, was presented at the Opéra-Comique. After the premiere the Paris correspondent of '' The Era'' called it "the most unsuccessful and insignificant of his works … utterly devoid of originality, altogether wanting in inspiration, and without a genuine sparkle from end to end." The run closed after eight performances.[
In 1899 Lecocq composed a ballet, '']Le Cygne
''Le cygne'', , or ''The Swan'', is the 13th and penultimate movement of ''The Carnival of the Animals'' by Camille Saint-Saëns. Originally scored for solo cello accompanied by two pianos, it has been arranged and transcribed for many instru ...
'', for the Opéra-Comique, to a scenario by Catulle Mendès
Catulle Mendès (22 May 1841 – 8 February 1909) was a French poet and man of letters.
Early life and career
Of Portuguese Jewish extraction, Mendès was born in Bordeaux. After childhood and adolescence in Toulouse, he arrived in Paris in 185 ...
.[ His last important operetta, in Lamb's view, was the three-act opéra comique '' La belle au bois dormant'' (Sleeping Beauty, 1900);][ after which he wrote one more full-length work (''Yetta'', 1903) for Brussels and four short pieces for Paris.]["Lecocq, Charles"]
Opérette: Théâtre Musical. Retrieved 22 September 2018
Lecocq was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...
in 1900 and promoted to Officier in 1910. He died in his home city of Paris, aged 85.[
]
Works
In a 2017 study, Laurence Senelick comments that whereas Offenbach's operas are frequently revived, Lecocq's are "the stuff of occasional antiquarian revivals" ... "sporadic productions of curiosity value".[Senelick, pp. 3 and 295] For the eight seasons from 2012 to 2020, the international Operabase
Operabase is an online database of opera performances, opera houses and companies, and performers themselves as well as their agents. Found at operabase.com, it was created in 1996 by English software engineer and opera lover Mike Gibb.Edward Sch ...
archive records ten staged or planned productions of four pieces by Lecocq: six productions of ''La fille de Madame Angot'', two of the 1887 three-act opéra comique ''Ali-Baba'' and one each of ''Le docteur Miracle'' and ''Le petit duc''. For the same period, Operabase records more than five hundred productions of nearly forty different operas by Offenbach.
Several writers have discussed why Lecocq's music is neglected. In 1911 an anonymous critic in ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' wrote, "Lecocq succeeded in being a formidable rival to Offenbach. As a composer he was one of the happiest of melodists, but never attained the heights of fascinating vulgarity and bustling originality of his more famous contemporary." Lamb writes that much of Lecocq's music is characterised by a light touch, although "he could also adopt a more lyrical and elevated style than Offenbach".[ Traubner comments that Lecocq consciously sought to elevate comic opera from the satirical and zany opéra-bouffe of his predecessors to the supposedly loftier genre of opéra-comique. Florian Bruyas in his ''Histoire de l'opérette en France'' makes a similar point. When ''Giroflé-Girofla'' opened at the ]Théâtre de la Renaissance
The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on th ...
in 1874, the reviewer in the ''Chronique Musicale'' wrote that the music seemed to him superior to that of Offenbach – or even of earlier pieces by Lecocq, including ''La fille de Madame Angot'' – but that it was composed in a style that was possibly too refined to appeal to operetta audiences. This style came into its own in the 1870s and 1880s, but went out of fashion before the turn of the century.[
In a 2015 study, ]Robert Letellier
Robert Ignatius Letellier (born 1953, in Durban, South Africa) is a cultural historian and academic, specialising in the history of music, Romantic literature and the Bible. He teaches at the Maryvale Institute and the Institute of Continuing Educ ...
divides the genre of opérette by chronology and type, with the "imperial" operetta of Offenbach followed by the "bourgeois" operetta of Lecocq, which was superseded by the "Belle Epoque" of Messager. Like the ''Observer'' reviewer, he remarks on the elegance of Lecocq's best music.[ He also criticises Lecocq for abusing his compositional talent, particularly in his early works, by setting libretti of little merit. This, in Letellier's view, led to the oblivion of much excellent music, lost when works with bad libretti failed. Traubner observes that many critics rate Lecocq higher than Offenbach as an orchestrator and harmonist, although melodically he did not rival the "startling immediacy" of Offenbach's tunes. Lecocq disliked being compared to Offenbach, and went out of his way to avoid rhythmic devices familiar from the older composer's works.][ ]Kurt Gänzl
Kurt-Friedrich Gänzl (born 15 February 1946) is a New Zealand writer, historian and former casting director and singer best known for his books about musical theatre.
After a decade-long playwriting, acting and singing career, and a second ca ...
's study of the composer concludes:
As well as his works for the stage, Lecocq composed around a hundred songs, including some set to fables by La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...
and a set of twenty 'Les chansons d'amour', and four volumes of piano pieces (including mazurkas dedicated to Bizet).[Charles Lecocq 1832-1918. In: Programme book for ''Ali Baba'' at the Opéra Comique, May 2014, p26-29 (essay author not given).]
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
List of Lecocq works
at the Index to Opera and Ballet Sources Online
*List of premieres
Opening Night! (Stanford University Libraries)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lecocq, Alexandre Charles
1832 births
1918 deaths
19th-century French male musicians
20th-century French male musicians
French Romantic composers
French male classical composers
French opera composers
French operetta composers
French ballet composers
Male opera composers
Musicians from Paris
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery