Jacques Fromental Halvy
Jacques-Fromental Halevy said Levy is a composer French, born in Paris on 27 May 1799 and died of tuberculosis in Nice on 17 March 1862.
Summary |
Biography
Jacques-Fromental Halevy was born into a Jewish family: his father, the name of Levy, a native of Frth (town in Bavaria ), was a schoolmaster and poet, while his mother, Julie Meyer, had Malzville , near Nancy. In 1807, the family changed its name to Halevy.
From the age of 7 years, he entered the Paris Conservatoire where he became a pupil of Felix Cazot , Lambert , Henri Montan Berton , Etienne Nicolas Mehul and Cherubini , who remains a close friend throughout his life. In 1817 , he won the first runner-up prize in Rome , then the first grand prix in 1819.
In 1827 he was appointed professor of harmony at the Conservatory and, later, he teaches counterpoint and composition. He composed some forty operas. Only the Jewish , French grand opera on a libretto by Scribe , is still played today.
He married a woman artist and cultivated Jewish banker's daughter, Leonie Rodrigues-Henriques, and has two daughters, the elder died in 1864 while she is engaged to her cousin Ludovic Halevy , and Jennifer ( 1849 - 1926 ), future Madame Georges Bizet , and Mrs. Emile Straus.
It was a very abundant melodic, sometimes inspired, very intelligent, sincere to the naive. By cons, he showed little talent for ballet music. He also had a real talent as a writer: Letters on music, published under the pseudonym Gervasius.
Of the thirty-six books he has written for theater, the biggest cheers are Guido and Ginevra or the Plague of Florence on a libretto by Scribe (5 March 1838 ), Queen of Cyprus with a libretto by Saint-Georges ( 22 December 1841 ) and Charles VI on a libretto by Casimir and Delavigne Germain (15 March 1843 ).
They include, among his comic operas, The Lightning ( 1835 ), The Queen's Musketeers ( 1846 ), Le Val d'Andorra ( 1848 ) and La Tempesta ( 1850 ). His work also includes several cantatas, several pieces of vocal music, a De Profundis for the funeral of the Duke of Berry.
In 1833 , he succeeded Franois-Joseph Fetis as professor of counterpoint at the Conservatory before being elected in 1836 at the Academy of Fine Arts in place of Antoine Reicha. He became permanent secretary in 1837. After his death, he asked the Legislature a pension of 5000 francs, granted to his widow as a national award.
As a teacher, he has students who become famous, including Charles Gounod , Victor Mass , Franois Bazin and Georges Bizet , who married his daughter Genevieve in 1869.
Showing some enthusiasm, he said: "The music provides the wonderful and sublime coupling of art that creates, moves, and the science that governs it. But art alone dominates master science and government does not reign. "
His nephew Ludovic Halevy wrote the librettos of many operas, first and foremost Carmen of Bizet.
Works
Operas
- L'Artisan (1827)
- The Boatman (1827)
- Clari , Italian (1828)
- Le Dilettante d'Avignon (1828)
- Memories of Lafleur (1829), at the retirement of Martin baritone
- Ludovic, initiated by Herold (1833)
- La Juive (1835)
The Jew is the prototype of "French grand opera" in five acts with ballet, opera genre - established in 1835 in Paris - and opens a large posterity know that during the nineteenth century. The opera is composed on a libretto by Eugene Scribe. The action takes place at the Council of Constance in 1414. Complicated and illogical, it depicts the descent into hell and condemnation to the stake of a Jewish goldsmith, Eleazar and his daughter Rachel, whom we learn that it is in fact his adopted daughter, who is seduced and abandoned by a Christian prince winner of Hussites , Leopold also married to Princess Eudoxia niece of the Emperor. The Catholic camp is represented by a powerful cleric, Cardinal Brogni that rather well intentioned, fails to save those that, for perfectly ridiculous the Council has condemned. The hatred is mutual, the character of Eleazar vehicle anti-Semitic stereotypes and improbabilities abound. The partition is of exceptional quality. The text of the Act IV aria, sung by Eleazar:
- "Rachel, when the Lord
- grace tutelary
- my trembling hands confided your crib,
- I had your happiness
- devoted my entire life.
- and it is me who book the executioner! "
was written by tenor Adolphe Nourishes so that the syllables, such as vowels, can match her voice well.
This air has greatly influenced the minds and had a literary posterity in La Recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust. "Rachel-when-the-Lord" is the nickname that the narrator gave a little prostitute as the madam of the brothel had touted as Jewish. Few volumes of research later, the narrator recognizes this when Rachel-the-Lord in the person of the mistress of his friend Robert de Saint-Loup.
- The Lightning (1835)
- Guido and Ginevra (1838)
- Sheriff (1839)
- The Draper (1840), according to Balzac
- The Guitarrero (1841)
- The Lazzaroni, or well just by sleeping
- The Queen of Cyprus (1841), see the article on wikisource Richard Wagner , Halevy and "Queen of Cyprus"
- Charles VI (1843)
- The Queen's Musketeers (1846)
- Val d'Andorra (1848)
- The Fairy with Roses (1849)
- La Tempesta, Italian, according to the drama of Shakespeare (1850)
- The Queen of Spades, based on the novel of Alexander Pushkin translated by Prosper Merimee (1850)
- The Wandering Jew (1852) based on the work of Eugene Sue
- The Nabob (1853)
- Jaguarita the Indian (1855)
- Valentine d'Aubigny, composed under a pseudonym
- The Magician (1858)
- Noah finished by Bizet
Books
- Memories and Portraits. Studies on the Fine Arts, Michel Lvy, 1861.
- Latest Memories and Portraits, preceded by a notice by PA Fiorentino, Michel Lvy, 1863; text on Gallica
Genealogy
Elie Halevy and Levy Halfon (? - 1826)
Cantor of the synagogue of the Rue des victories
x Julie Mayer (1781-1819)
> Jacques-Fromental Halevy (1799-1862), composer of opera music
x Leonie Rodriguez-Enriquez (1820-1884), daughter of Alexandre Rodrigues-Henriques (1765-1834), banker, and Esther Gradis (1780-1859)
> Esther Halevy (1845-1864)
engaged to her cousin Ludovic Halevy
> Genevive Halvy (1849-1926)
x 1 Georges Bizet
x 2 Emile Strauss (1844-1939)
> 1. Jacques Bizet
> Lon Halvy (1802-1883), professor of literature, poet, fabulist, playwright
x 1 Alexandrine Lebas, daughter of Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867), famous architect, and Dove Isambert
x 2 Miss Paradol
> 1. Ludovic Halevy (1834-1908)
betrothed to her cousin Esther Halevy
x Louise Breguet (1847-1930), daughter of Louis Breguet (1803-1883), French physicist and watchmaker, and Charlotte Lassieur
> Elie Halvy (1870-1937) philosopher and historian, doctor honoris causa of the University of Oxford
> Daniel Halvy (1872-1962), essayist and historian
x 1898 Marianne Vaudoyer
> Franoise-Hlne Halevy (1900-1993)
x 1901 Joxe Louis (1901-1991), French politician
> Pierre Joxe (b. 1934 ), French politician
> 1. Valentine Halevy (1846-1893)
> 2. Lucien-Anatole Prvost-Paradol
Bibliography
- Michel Faure , Music and freedom of belief and worship under the July Monarchy or the emergence of Protestants and Jews over the opera houses, in society's influence on music, Paris, 2008.
See also
Related articles
External Links
- (En) Biography
- (En) Relationship between Berlioz and Halevy
- (En) Sainte-Beuve, New Mondays, t. 2, p. 227-246, Article Halevy, permanent secretary, Monday, April 14, 1862: text of the article on Gallica
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