Auguste Vaucorbeil
Auguste Vaucorbeil | |
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Born | Auguste Emmanuel Veaucorbeille 15 December 1821 Rouen, France |
Died | 2 November 1884 Paris, France | (aged 62)
Occupations |
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Auguste Emmanuel Vaucorbeil, born Veaucorbeille, (15 December 1821 – 2 November 1884) was a French composer and theatre manager. He was the director of the
Life and career
Vaucorbeil was born in
According to
Vaucorbeil was constantly under pressure to produce new works each season and at the same time keep the state-subsidised company's expenditure down. Writing in 1881, Conrad defended what he called Vaucorbeil's occasionally brusque and authoritarian manner, attributing it to the anxiety caused by the heavy responsibilities he faced. They would eventually wear him down and ruin his health. Vaucorbeil died in 1884 at the age of 62 after suffering for two weeks from what was described in
The day after his death, Auguste Vitu wrote a lengthy account in Le Figaro of Vaucorbeil's life and the successes and failures he encountered in his management of the Opéra. He began the piece by writing that the Opéra would kill others too, equally intelligent and as confident as Vaucorbeil had been when he first took over its management. At the end, he wrote:
Vaucorbeil, the honest man in all senses of the word. That is to say, a loyal, affable, and kind man, who did not know how to fight back and who when forced to refuse the impossible, grieved at the refusal as if he had suffered it himself. This sensitivity made him share the sorrows of others in his most intimate being as if they were his own. It consumed him, slowly at first, and then like an explosion.[5]
Compositions
As a composer, Vaucorbeil was best known for his art songs, many of them set to texts by prominent poets of the day and initially appearing individually in the periodical Le Ménestrel. A complete collection of his songs was published by Heugel in 1860.[8] Heugel also published some of Vaucorbeil's chamber music—three sonatas for piano and violin and String Quartet No. 1 dedicated to Joseph d'Ortigue who was a great admirer of Vaucorbeil's work. His Intimités (6 pieces for solo piano) was published by Durand and his string quintet based on Norwegian melodies was published by Richault. He also composed several pieces of vocal religious music which were published by La Maîtrise in 1860, including Cantique des Trois Enfants to a text by Corneille and a Kyrie for three voices.[2]
Vaucorbeil composed three dramatic works:
- Bataille d'amour, an opéra comique in three acts set to a libretto by Victorien Sardou and Karl Daclin. It premiered on 13 April 1863 at the Opéra-Comique (Salle Favart) in Paris.[9]
- La Mort de Diane, a large-scale cantata for chorus and soprano, set to a libretto by Pierre-Henri de Lacretelle. It was premiered in Paris by the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire on 13 February 1870 with Gabrielle Krauss in the title role.[10]
- Mahomet, a grand opera in four acts with a libretto by Pierre-Henri de Lacretelle. It was never staged. However, extracts from the work received favourable reviews when they were performed at the Société des Concerts in 1877, again with Gabrielle Krauss as the lead soprano.[10][11]
See also
- Ballerina (2016 film) where he appears as a character voiced by Joe Sheridan
References
- ^ Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. V, pp. 233–234. MacMillan
- ^ a b c Pougin, Arthur Pougin (ed.) (1880). "Vaucorbeil, Auguste-Emmanuel". Biographie universelle des musiciens, Vol. 2, pp. 610–611. Firmin-Didot
- ISBN 0195346505
- ^ ISBN 3039103962(in French)
- ^ a b Vitu, Auguste (3 November 1884). "M. Vaucorbeil". Le Figaro, p. 1.
- ^ Le Masque de Fer (pseudonym) (3 November 1884). "Échos de Paris". Le Figaro, p. 1.
- ^ Gilbert, Frédéric (4 November 1884). "Dernière heure a l'Opéra". Le Gaulois. p. 2
- ^ Le Ménestrel (15 April 1860). "Mélodies de A.E. Vaucorbeil", p. 156
- ISBN 1443821683
- ^ ISBN 0520236645
- ^ Moreno, H. (4 March 1877). "Le Mahomet de M. Vaucorbeil. Le Ménestrel, p. 107