Xavier Henry Napoleón Leroux (11 October 1863 – 2 February 1919) was a French composer and a teacher at the Paris Conservatory. He was married to the famous soprano Meyrianne Héglon (1867–1942).

Life

Born in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Velletri Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring comm ...

, 30 km south-east of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Leroux was the son of a French military bandleader. He studied 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 ...

under Jules Massenet and

Théodore Dubois Clément François Théodore Dubois (24 August 1837 – 11 June 1924) was a French Romantic composer, organist, and music teacher. After study at the Paris Conservatoire, Dubois won France's premier musical prize, the Prix de Rome in 1861. He bec ...

, and 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 ...

in 1885 with the cantata ''Endymion''. From 1896 he taught harmony there. Notable students include

Eugène Bigot Eugène Bigot (28 February 1888 – 17 July 1965) was a French composer and conductor. Life Bigot was born in Rennes, Brittany, and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris where his notable pupils included Émilien Allard, Louis de Froment, Henr ...

, Georges Dandelot, Marc Delmas,

Roger Désormière Roger Désormière () (13 September 1898 – 25 October 1963) was a French conductor. He was an enthusiastic champion of contemporary composers, but also conducted performances of early eighteenth century French music. Life and career Désormièr ...

Louis Fourestier Louis (Félix André) Fourestier (31 May 1892 – 30 September 1976) was a French conductor, composer and pedagogue, and was one of the founders of the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. Early years, compositions and prizes Fourestier was born in Mo ...

Henri Mulet Henri Gabriel Mulet (17 October 1878 – 20 September 1967) was a French composer, pipe and reed organist, and cellist. Biography Mulet was born on 17 October 1878 in Paris. His father Gabriel Léon Mulet was choirmaster of the Basilica of Sacr ...

Paul Paray Paul Marie-Adolphe Charles Paray () (24 May 1886 – 10 October 1979) was a French conductor, organist and composer. He was the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1952 until 1963. Early life and education Paul Paray was ...

Louis Vuillemin Louis Vuillemin (19 December 1879 – 2 April 1929) was a French composer and music critic who strongly identified with his Breton heritage in his music. Life Vuillemin was born in Nantes, his grandfather was the piano manufacturer M. Didion. He s ...

, and Albert Wolff. Leroux composed various orchestral and choral works, songs, and piano pieces, but he became known above all as a representative of naturalistic French opera. His masterpiece is the opera ''Le Chemineau'', which was staged six times at the Opéra-Comique between 1907 and 1945.

Alfredo Casella Alfredo Casella (25 July 18835 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Bordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a fr ...

dedicated his Symphony No. 1 in B minor, Op. 5 to him in 1905. Leroux was married to the Brussels-born soprano Marie-Antoinette Willemsen, who appeared under the pseudonym Meyrianne Héglon (1867–1942).

Selected works

Incidental music

*''

The Persians ''The Persians'' ( grc, Πέρσαι, ''Persai'', Latinised as ''Persae'') is an Greek tragedy, ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical Greece, Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and on ...

'' (

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

) *''

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 common ...

'' (

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his for ...

)

Operas

*''Evangéline'' (

Louis de Gramont Louis Ferdinand de Gramont (1854 – 9 December 1912) was a French journalist, dramatist, and librettist. He was a son of Ferdinand de Gramont. Gramont was born in Sèvres and finished his studies at the college there, then entered the School of L ...

) (1895) *'' Astarté'' (Louis de Gramont) (1901) *''

La reine Fiammette ''La reine Fiammette'' is an opera in four acts by composer Xavier Leroux. The opera uses a French language libretto by Catulle Mendès which is based on Mendès's 1898 work of the same name, a ''conte dramatique'' in six acts set in Renaissance It ...

'' (1903) *''Vénus et Adonis'' (Louis de Gramont) (1905) *''William Ratcliff'' (Louis de Gramont after Heinrich Heine) (1906) *''Le Chemineau'' (1907) *''Théodora'' (1907) *''Le Carillonneur'' (1913) *''La Fille de Figaro'' (1914) *''

Les cadeaux de Noël ''Les cadeaux de Noël'' (''The Christmas Gifts'') is an opera in one act composed by Xavier Leroux to a French-language libretto by Émile Fabre. Described as a (heroic tale), it was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart Theatre ...

'' (1915) *''1814'' (1918) *''Nausithoé'' (1920) *''La Plus forte'' (1924) *''L'Ingénu'' (1931)

Others

*''Hymne'' (1914)

References

Don Randel Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a trustee ...

: ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music'' (Cambridge, MA, 1996), p. 499.

External links

* 1863 births 1919 deaths 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male musicians 20th-century French male musicians Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Conservatoire de Paris alumni French male classical composers French music educators French opera composers French Romantic composers Male opera composers People from Velletri Prix de Rome for composition {{France-composer-stub