Jean-Louis Aristide Hignard (20 May 1822 – 20 March 1898) was a French composer of light opera notable as a friend of

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

, also from Nantes and six years Hignard's junior, some of whose librettos and verse he set to music.Patrick Barbier, "Hignard et Verne: Les Mélodies de l'amitié", in ''Voyage autour de Jules Verne'' (Académie de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loire, 2000).

Life and music

The son of a shipowner, Hignard was born in

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

and studied at 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 ...

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 ...

and won the Second Grand

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 1850 with the cantata ''Emma et Eginhard''. His first comic opera ''Le Visionnaire'' was published in 1851. During the 1850s Hignard composed four comic operas, for which his childhood friend

provided the librettos. In 1861, the operetta ''Les Musiciens de l'orchestre'' was performed, which Hignard had composed together with

Léo Delibes Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (; 21 February 1836 – 16 January 1891) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his ballets and operas. His works include the ballets ''Coppélia'' (1870) and '' Sylvia'' (1876) and the opera ''Lakm� ...

and Jules Erlanger (and probably also

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 '' ...

). For a long time, Hignard worked on his main work, the five-act opera ''Hamlet'' based on a libretto by Pierre de Garal. It was premiered in 1868 with great success. He also composed a series of songs (partly based on texts by Verne) as well as waltzes and melodies for the piano. He died in Vernon.

Works

* ''La Mille et deuxième nuit'', opera with libretto by Jules Verne (1850), never performed * ''Le Visionnaire'', opéra-comique in 1 act (1851) *''Le Colin-maillard'' (Jules Verne and

Michel Carré Michel Carré (20 October 1821, Besançon – 27 June 1872, Argenteuil) was a prolific French librettist. He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libre ...

), opéra-comique in 1 act (1853) * ''Les Compagnons de la Marjolaine'' (J. Verne and M. Carré) opéra-comique in 1 act (1855) * ''Monsieur de Chimpanzé'' (J. Verne), operetta (1858) * ''L'Auberge des Ardennes'' (J. Verne and M. Carré), opéra-comique in 1 act (1860) * ''Le Nouveau Pourceaugnac'', played at the Bouffes-Parisiens (1860) * ''Les Musiciens de l'orchestre'', a collaboration with

(1861) * ''Hamlet'', opéra (1868) * ''Rimes et mélodies'', on poems by Jules Verne (1857–63)

Recordings

* ''Mélodies inédites''. Music by Hignard and one song ''Zouaves!'' by

Alfred Dufresne Jacques Marie Alfred Dufresne (1822, Orléans – 18 March 1863, Paris) was a 19th-century French composer and playwright. A student of Fromental Halévy at the Paris Conservatory, he is mostly known for having written music for hundreds of songs ...

(1822–1872), performed by Françoise Masset and Emmanuel Strosser (L'Académie de Bretagne et des Pays de Loire, 2005).

Bibliography

* Patrick Barbier, "Hignard et Verne: Les Mélodies de l'amitié", in ''Voyage autour de Jules Verne'' (Académie de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loire, 2000). * Alexandre Tarrieu, "Aristide Hignard (1822–1898)", in ''Revue Jules Verne'', no. 11 (2001).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hignard, Aristide 1822 births 1898 deaths 19th-century French composers 19th-century male musicians French Romantic composers French opera composers Male opera composers Musicians from Nantes Prix de Rome for composition