Félix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, known as Léon Vasseur (28 May 1844 – 25 May 1917), was a French composer, organist and conductor. While working as a cathedral organist, he turned to composing

operetta 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 ...

s and soon had a hit with ''La timbale d'argent'' (1872). He wrote another thirty operettas but never repeated that early success. He also composed church music including two settings of the

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

Biography

Vasseur was born in

Bapaume Bapaume (original Dutch name Batpalmen) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. The inhabitants of this commune are known as ''Bapalmois'' or ''Bapalmoises''. Geography Bapaume is a far ...

in north-east France, the son of Augustin Vasseur, the local church organist and choirmaster.Havard de La Montagne, Denis.
"Léon Vasseur, Musicien Atypique"
''Musica et Memoria'' (French text), accessed 23 June 2010. After studying music with his father, Vasseur enrolled at the age of 12 as a student at the École Niedermeyer, the school of church music in Paris,Lamb, Andrew.
"Vasseur, Léon
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, accessed 23 June 2010 (requires subscription) He studied under

Pierre-Louis Dietsch Pierre-Louis-Philippe Dietsch (also ''Dietch'', ''Dietzch'', ''Dietz'') (17 March 1808 – 20 February 1865) was a French composer and conductor,Cooper & Millington 1992. perhaps best remembered for the much anthologized Ave Maria 'by' Jacques A ...

(harmony), Georges Schmitt (organ and improvisation) 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 ...

(piano), and won the school's top prizes as a pianist and organist. He left the school in 1862 and at the age of 18 was appointed organist at Saint-Symphorien,

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

In 1870 after eight years at Saint-Symphorien, Vasseur succeeded Marie-Louise Leroi-Godefroy as organist of

Notre-Dame de Versailles The Church of Notre-Dame, Versailles (french: Église Notre-Dame de Versailles), is a Roman Catholic parish church in Versailles, Yvelines, France, in the Rue de la Paroisse. History The church was built at the command of Louis XIV by Jules Ha ...

, the former royal parish church of the kings of France. He composed works for both his churches, including 20

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s, 2 masses, offertories, anthems and a

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for "

y soul Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or sevent ...

magnifies

he Lord He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Eastern Christianity, Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated ...

, and also an instruction book, ''Méthode d'orgue expressif ou harmonium'' (1867). In 1872 he resigned his post and was succeeded by Emile Renaud. Vasseur turned from the church to the theatre. His first attempt at

, a one-act piece called ''Un fi, deux fi, trois figurants'', was given at the Alcazar

café-chantant (French: lit. 'singing café'), , or , is a type of musical establishment associated with the Belle Époque in France. The music was generally lighthearted and sometimes risqué or even bawdy but, as opposed to the cabaret tradition, not parti ...

on 1 April 1872. It was not a success, but his second piece, ''La timbale d'argent'' (''The Silver Cup''), opened eight days later at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens and ran for more than 200 nights. It saved the theatre from bankruptcy and confirmed Vasseur in his determination to switch from sacred to secular music. The piece was subsequently performed in America, Britain and elsewhere. Vasseur never equalled the popularity of ''La timbale d'argent'', but his series of usually risqué operettas achieved modest success at a variety of theatres in Paris and elsewhere. The most notable of these include ''La cruche cassée'' (1875), ''Le droit du seigneur'' (1878) and ''Le voyage de Suzette'' (1889). He did not abandon sacred music completely. In 1877 his ''Hymne à Sainte-Cécile'', for

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

, organ and orchestra, was given at Versailles Cathedral and was well received by the public and critics. In 1879 Vasseur set himself up as an impresario. He reopened the former Théâtre Taitbout as the Nouveau Théâtre-Lyrique, but his attempt at theatre management was unsuccessful. His first production, ''Hymnis'', a

comic opera Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue. Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...

by Theodore de Banville and Jules Cressonnois, proved too heavyweight for the taste of the Parisian public, and within a year Vasseur was forced to close the theatre. He succeeded

Olivier Métra Jules-Louis-Olivier Métra (2 June 1830 – 22 October 1889) was a French composer and conductor. Biography The son of the actor Jean Baptiste Métra, Olivier Métra began his career at a very early age with his father. In 1842, he made his d ...

as conductor of the

Folies Bergère The Folies Bergère () is a cabaret music hall, located in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened on 2 May 1869 as the Folies Trév ...

.Grove gives the year of this appointment as 1890; ''Musica et Memoria'' gives the year as 1879. He retired from the theatre in 1897. Vasseur was twice married, first to Caroline Chaiselat and then to Ernestine Cavier. Vasseur died in Asnières (

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a Departments of France, département in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner Banlieue, suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the e ...

) at the age of 72.

Works

Vasseur's one-act operettas are: ''Un fi, deux fi, trois figurants'' (1872); ''Mon mouchoir'' (1872); ''Le grelot'' (1873); ''L’Opoponax'' (1877); ''Royal amour'' (1884); ''Au premier hussard'' (1883); ''Le royaume d'Hercule'' (1896); ''Au chat qui pelote'' (1897); and ''Dans la plume'' (1898). His three-act operettas are: ''La timbale d'argent'' (1872); ''La petite reine'' (1873); ''Le roi d'Yvetot'' (1873); ''La famille Trouillat ou La rosière d'Honfleur'' (1874); ''La blanchisseuse de Berg-op-Zoom'' (1875 ); ''La cruche cassée'' (1875); ''La Sorrentine'' (1876); ''Le droit du seigneur'' (1878); ''Le billet de logement'' (1879); ''Le petit Parisien'' (1882); ''Le mariage au tambour'' (1886); ''Madame Cartouche'' (1886); ''Ninon de Lenclos'' (1887); ''Mam’zelle Crénom'' (1888); ''Le voyage de Suzette'' (1889); ''La famille Vénus'' (1891); ''Le pays de l'or'' (1892); and ''La souris blanche'' (1897). Other stage works, including ballet-pantomimes are: ''Les parisiennes'' (1874); ''Le prince soleil'' (1889); ''La prétentaine'' (1893); ''La brasserie'' (1886); and ''Le commandant Laripète'' (1892) Vasseur's church works include, ''L'Office divin'' (a collection of masses, offertories, antiphons, etc.); ''Hymne à Ste Cécile'', for soprano, organ and orchestra; 2 masses; Magnificat.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasseur, Leon 1844 births 1917 deaths People from Bapaume French male classical composers French operetta composers French opera composers Male opera composers French composers of sacred music