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Fromental Halévy
(1799-1862)
TRANSCRIPTION
Mon cher ami,
Après-demain jeudi, à onze heures,
si cela ne vous dérange pas, je serai tout à vos ordres et je vous attendrai sauf avis
contraire. Soyez assez bon pour prévenir Niedermeyer.
Tout à vous
F. Halévy
mardi matin
*Translation facilitation thanks to
visitor D.B., Paris, France
TRANSLATION
Dear friend,
Thursday, the day after tomorrow, at 11:00, if
this is convenient to you, I'll be at your disposal and will wait for you
unless advised to the contrary. Be kind enough to advise Niedemeyer1.
Yours,
F. Halévy
Tuesday morning
1) Louis Niedermeyer (1802-1861) Swiss composer of opera and sacred music moved to Paris in
1823. Namesake
for Parisian music school, Ecole Niedermeyer. [N.B. Benjamin Van Wye
states: "In contrast to the Conservatory, the École de Musique Religieuse et
Classique, founded by Lousi ALfred Niedermeyer in 1853 and located in Paris,
specialized in training church musicians; and it was here that several
organists-composers were first brought into contact with the plainsong
restoration. Although the composition of service music was not one of its stated
goals, the École Niedermeyer (as this institution came to be known) gave
considerable impetus to the creation of a new style of liturgical organ music."
(Source: Benjamin Van Wye, "Gregorian Influences in French Organ
Music," Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol.XXVII, No. 1,
Spring 1974, p. 7) ] [Also see Alexandre Choron]
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Jacques Fromental Halévy was born in
Paris on May 27, 1799 to Jewish parents; a German father and a French mother. He
entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1810 and became a pupil and, eventually, a
protegé of Cherubini. He won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1819. His first opera
to be performed, though unsuccessful, was L'artisan, at the Opéra
Comique in 1827. For many years Halevy was chef de chant at the Théatre
Italien at the Opéra. While working at the Théatre Italien, he met Maria
Malibran, for whom he wrote the first of his two Italian works, Clari,
which premiered in 1828. It was a moderate success as was La
dilettante d'Avignon which premiered a year later. Halévy finally achieved
solid recognition in 1833 with Ludovic. Those successes notwithstanding,
he attained his first major, international triumph with La juive in 1835.
La juive instantly became a cornerstone of French opera repertory.
In the same year as La juive, Halévy produced L'éclair,
a very different opera for La juive. Despite its difference, it was a
tremendous success in Paris. The double success of his operas made Halévy a
celebrity in Parisian circles. The rate at which Halevy wrote operas was not
lost on the public and certainly not on his contemporaries. Guido et Ginevra (1838)
and Le guitarrero (1841) were mediocre, while reception of La reine de
Chypre in 1841 was enormousl
After Halévy's Charles VI in 1846, came some lighter
works: Les Mousquetaires de la reine (1846) and Le val d'Andorre
(1848). His second Italian opera (the first was Clari) was La tempesta
(1850) derived from William Shakespeare's play The Tempesta. Halévy's
last important works were Le Juif errant (1852), La magicienne
(1858), and Jaguerita l'Indienne.
Halévy, having written nearly 40 opera, was one of the most
successful French opera composers of the mid-nineteenth century. He was rivaled
during his lifetime only by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Daniel Auber , Ambroise Thomas,
and Charles Gounod. Halévy retired to Nice for health reasons and died there on
March 17, 1862.
REV: 2/16/2006
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