Louis-Gaston Ganne (5 April 1862 in

Buxières-les-Mines Buxières-les-Mines () is a commune in the Allier department in central France. Population Transport Buxières-les-Mines was served by railway. The railway station was Gare de Chavenon in the nearby city of Chavenon. It was used for the ...

(

Allier Allier ( , , ; oc, Alèir) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region that borders Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire to the east, Puy-de-Dôme to the south, and Creuse to the south-west. Named afte ...

) – 13/14 July 1923 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a conductor and composer of

French opera French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet, Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Messiaen. Many foreign-born composers have played a part i ...

operettas Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

s, and

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...

Biography

Ganne was born in the

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

region of France and grew up in

Issy-les-Moulineaux Issy-les-Moulineaux () is a commune in the southwestern suburban area of Paris, France, lying on the left bank of the river Seine. Its citizens are called ''Isséens'' in French. It is one of Paris' entrances and is located from Notre-Dame Cath ...

, in the suburbs of Paris. He studied under

César Franck César-Auguste Jean-Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in modern-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of his birth was p ...

and

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...

at the

Conservatoire de Paris 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 ...

. He conducted at the Nouveau Théâtre de la Rue Blanche and at the Folies-Bergère, and later led a concert series at the Monte Carlo Casino. Ganne is most recognized today for his popular patriotic marches, ''Le père la victoire'' and '' La marche Lorraine''. He also composed for the ballet, including the 1902 ballet "In Japan".Pritchard, Jane, "'More Natural than Nature, More Artificial than Art': The Dance Criticism of Arthur Symons" (Winter 2003). ''Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research'', 21 (2): pp. 36-89. He is less well known outside his native France, and his many operettas are now rarely performed. His most successful light opera is the circus musical ''

Les saltimbanques ''For Pablo Picasso's 1905 painting, see La famille de saltimbanques'' ''Les saltimbanques'' (''The Acrobats'') is an opéra-comique in three acts, libretto by Maurice Ordonneau, music by Louis Ganne, first performed at the Théâtre de la Ga� ...

'' (''The Acrobats''), from 1899.

Selected operas and operettas

*''Ophélia'' (1887) *''Tout Paris'' (1891) *''L'Heureuse rencontre'' (1892) *''Rabelais'', opera in 4 acts (1892) *''Les colles des femmes'' (1893) *''Le Réveil d'une parisienne'' (1894) *''La Puce'' (1894) *''Raseur'' (1895) *''Qui veut de l'amour?'' (1899) *''

'', opera in 3 acts (1899) *''Miss Bouton d'Or'', opera in 2 acts (1902) *''Les Plaques de l'année'', (1906) *''Hans, le joueur de flûte'', opera in 3 acts (1906) *''Les Ailes'' (1910) *''Rhodope'', opera in 3 acts (1910) *''Cocorico'', opera in 3 acts (1913) *''L'Archiduc des Folies-Bergère'', opera in 2 acts (1916) *''La Belle de Paris'', opera in 2 acts (1922)

References

Sources

''Ganne, Louis'' by Kurt Gäzl, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992)

External links

MusicWeb International review of EMI recording of ''Les saltimbanques'', December 2001
* French opera composers Male opera composers French operetta composers 1862 births 1923 deaths French male classical composers People from Issy-les-Moulineaux Pupils of César Franck French male conductors (music) French conductors (music) Conservatoire de Paris alumni {{France-composer-stub