Gervais Bernard Gaston Salvayre (24 June 1847 – 17 May 1916) was a French composer and music critic who won 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 ...
for composition in 1872.
Biography
Born in
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...
, Salvayre attended the and then the
Paris Conservatory
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 ...
, where he studied piano with
Antoine François Marmontel
Antoine François Marmontel () (18 July 1816 – 16 January 1898) was a French pianist, composer, teacher and musicographer. He is mainly known today as an influential teacher at the Paris Conservatory, where he taught many musicians who became ...
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 ...
. He received a first prize in organ and competed five times unsuccessfully for 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 ...
in composition before winning the Premier Grand Prix in 1872 with the dramatic scene ''Calypso''. In Rome he composed several pieces, which were presented in Paris: ''Ouverture symphonique'' and ballet music for Albert Grisar's opera ''Les Amours du diable'' in 1874, and ''La Résurrection'' (a "biblical symphony", in 1876; renamed ''La Vallée de Josaphat'' in 1882).John Trevitt "Salvayre, (Gervais Bernard) Gaston" Oxford Music online, 2001, subscription required.
He became the chorus master of the
Opéra Populaire
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 ...
at the
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.
One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a ...
in 1874. For several years he was a music critic for the periodical ''
Gil Blas
''Gil Blas'' (french: L'Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane ) is a picaresque novel by Alain-René Lesage published between 1715 and 1735. It was highly popular, and was translated several times into English, most notably as The Adventures of G ...
''. He became Chevalier of the
Legion of Honour
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 ...
in 1880.
His
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 o ...
''La Dame de Monsoreau'', with a libretto by
Auguste Maquet
Auguste Maquet (; 13 September 1813 – 8 January 1888) was a French author, best known as the chief collaborator of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, père, co-writing such works as ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' and ''The Three Musketeers''.
...
based on the play by Maquet and Alexandre Dumas, was commissioned by the Paris Opera and premiered at the Palais Garnier on 30 January 1888. It was not very successful and was withdrawn after its eighth performance.
He died in
Ramonville-Saint-Agne
Ramonville-Saint-Agne (; Lengadocian: ), commonly known as Ramonville, is a commune in the suburbs of Toulouse, located in the French department of Haute-Garonne, administrative region of Occitanie, France.
Population
The inhabitants of the co ...
.
Works
* 1872: ''Calypso'', cantata, by Gaston Salvayre and Paul Hillemacher.
* 1877: ''Le Bravo'', opera in 4 acts, libretto by Emile Blavet, premiered on 18 April 1877 at the Opéra-National-Lyrique (Paris) with
Cécile Mézeray
Cécile Mézéray was a French soprano active in France and Belgium in the mid nineteenth century. Born around 1859, she was one of the daughters of the musician Charles Mézeray (né Costard, born in Brunswick in 1810 and sometime conductor of t ...
as Violetta Tiepolo
* 1877: ''Le Fandango'', ballet-pantomime in 1 act, on a libretto by Louis-Alexandre Mérante,
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' ...
and
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 ...
, Paris, Académie nationale de musique, 26 November 1877.
* ????: Songs: Aubades ''Toi, la beauté, toi la jeunesse'' - ''J'ai cherché le repos''; Chanson mauresque, ''Les filles d'Afrique'' - Chansons diverses ''J'aime dans le rayon'' (poem also used by
Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
). ''Viens-tu pas ma belle, c'est l'heure'' - ''Réveil d'amour'', on texts by
Paul Collin
Paul Collin (12 July 1843 – 5 February 1915) was a French poet, writer, translator and librettist.
Life and career
Collin was born in Conches-en-Ouche. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, his family produced administrative officers in the mili ...
.
* 1886: ''Egmont'', lyrical drama in 4 acts, libretto by
Albert Millaud
Albert Millaud was a French journalist, writer and stage author, born in Paris, 13 January 1844, and died in the same city on 23 October 1892.Albert Wolff, premiered in Paris, Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, 6 December 1886.
* 1888: ''La Dame de Monsoreau''.
* 1897: ''Noël méridional : La Maisonnette'', mélodie on a poem by Édouard Guinand.Édouard Guinand on Bibliothèque nationale de France