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 debut at the Théâtre Comte. In addition, he learned the violin and played from the age of 19 years in a ball of Boulevard de Rochechouart. On the advice of an orchestra musician, he followed the lessons of Antoine Elwart at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

, where he obtained a first prize of

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

. From 1855 he conducted the orchestra of the Bal Mabille. During this period he acquired great popularity thanks to waltzes such as ''Le Tour du Monde'', la ''Valse des Roses'', ''Gambrinus'', and ''La Nuit La sérénade''. From 1872 to 1877, he conducted the bals of the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief riva ...

, the orchestra of the Folies Bergère for which he composed several

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, including ''Les Volontaires''. From 1874 to 1876, he directed the bals of the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels and, finally, the along with

Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an List of Austrian composers, Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well ...

. In 1879, he gave the ballet ''Yedda'', on a choreography by Mérante, premiered 17 January 1879. In 1885, he established at Palais Vivienne the "soirées Metra" which consisted of promenade concerts, dances and parties on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. In 1888, he created at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens his

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

Le Mariage avant la lettre
' on a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Adolphe Jaime and Georges Duval. In addition to his waltzes and operettas, Métra made numerous arrangements of other operettas by composers such as

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

, Émile Tédesco, Louis Ganne,

Robert Planquette Jean Robert Planquette (; 31 July 1848 – 28 January 1903) was a French composer of songs and operettas. Several of Planquette's operettas were extraordinarily successful in Britain, especially ''Les cloches de Corneville'' (1878), the length o ...

, Charles Lecocq,

Edmond Audran Achille Edmond Audran (12 April 184017 August 1901) was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas. After beginning his career in Marseille as an organist, Audran composed religious music and b ...

and Léon Vasseur. Some of his compositions are used as film music in, among others, '' Ciboulette'', by

Claude Autant-Lara Claude Autant-Lara (; 5 August 1901 – 5 February 2000) was a French film director, screenwriter, set designer and costume designer who worked in films for over 50 years. He made films characterised by bourgeois Realism (arts), realism, anti- ...

(1930) and '' Sentimental Destinies'' by

Olivier Assayas Olivier Assayas (; born 25 January 1955) is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. Assayas is known for his eclectic filmography, consisting of slow-burning Period Piece Films, period pieces, psychological thrillers, neo-noirs, an ...

(2000). Of all French composers of his style and his time, he was one of the most popular. Everyone knew his waltzes,

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

s, mazurkas and quadrilles. Metra bois le roi bmr 99 287

Olivier Métra is buried at Bois-le-Roi, his monumental tomb is adorned with a bust by

Antonin Mercié Marius Jean Antonin Mercié (October 30, 1845 in Toulouse – December 12, 1916 in Paris), was a French Sculpture, sculptor, Medalist, medallist and Painting, painter. Biography Mercié entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, ...

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

alludes to ''Valse des roses'' by Olivier Métra in '' Swann's way''.

References

Sources

''La vie rémoise''

External links

Nécrologie

Olivier Métra
on the site of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Metra, Olivier 1830 births 1889 deaths 19th-century French classical composers 19th-century French male musicians French operetta composers French male conductors (music) French Romantic composers Musicians from Reims