Ernest Guiraud

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Ernest Guiraud, photograph by G. Camus, c. 1890.

Ernest Guiraud (French:

Les contes d'Hoffmann
(The Tales of Hoffmann).

Biography

Guiraud was born in

King David, which he and his father had found on a trip to Paris. The result was David, an opera in three-acts, which had a resounding success at the Théâtre d'Orléans
in New Orleans in 1853, sealing his future.

In December of the same year, Guiraud sailed back to

Emile Paladilhe, Théodore Dubois, and especially Georges Bizet
.

Guiraud entered his profession by writing one-act stage works that served as "curtain raisers" for evenings of theatrical entertainment. His first important stage work, Sylvie, which premiered at the Opéra Comique in 1864, was a popular success and established his reputation in Paris. In August 1870, the impact of the Franco-Prussian War hit Paris while his opéra-ballet Le Kobold was only 18 days into its run. All of the theaters closed their doors. Guiraud enlisted in the infantry and fought for France to the war's end in 1871.

Although Guiraud's primary interest was the composition of operas, most of them were not a success. Madame Turlupin (1872) was a succès d'estime, but it was hampered by an old-fashioned libretto. Piccolino, his three-act

Célestine Marié, known as Galli-Marié, and a brilliant and effective ballet
entitled Carnaval (a movement from his "First Orchestral Suite") enabled the work to achieve a long run. However, the opera was never revived.

After Bizet's death, Guiraud collected Bizet's original scores and arranged the frequently performed

Les contes d'Hoffmann
(The Tales of Hoffmann) which was left unfinished at Offenbach's death. Guiraud's version was very popular but it was not exclusively performed because Offenbach left an enormous number of sketches that various composers and arrangers have used to make their realisations of the opera.

The amount of Guiraud's own musical output is small, probably due to his desire to help his friends as well as demands from his teaching career. Of his compositions in other forms, his ballet Le Forgeron de Gretna Green, given at the

Danse macabre
.) Beginning in 1876, Guiraud taught at the Paris Conservatoire. He was a founding member of the
Mélanie Bonis, Paul Dukas, Achille Fortier, André Gedalge and Erik Satie are also counted among his students. There have been rare revivals of his final opera Frédégonde, in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017 and at Oper Dortmund in 2021 and 2022.[3]

Guiraud devoted the years 1891 and 1892 to completing the orchestration for Kassya, a five-act opera by Léo Delibes. However, it was left unfinished due to his own death in Paris at age 54.

Operas

  • David, opéra (3 acts, after A. Soumet & F. Mallefille: Le roi David), first performed (f.p.) 14 April 1853, Théâtre d'Orléans, New Orleans, USA.
  • Gli avventurieri, melodrama giocoso (1 act), ms. 1861, unperformed.
  • Sylvie, opéra comique (1 act, J. Adenis & J. Rostaing), f.p. 11 May 1864, Opéra-Comique (second Salle Favart), Paris.
  • Le Coupe du roi de Thulé, opéra (3 acts, L. Gallet & Blau), ms. 1869-69, unperformed.
  • En prison, opéra comique (1 act, T. Chaigneau & C. Boverat), f.p. 5 March 1869, Théâtre Lyrique, Paris.
  • Le Kobold, opéra-ballet (1 act, Gallet &
    Charles-Louis-Etienne Nuitter
    ), f.p. 26 July 1870, Opéra-Comique (Favart), Paris.
  • Madame Turlupin, opéra comique (2 acts, E. Cormon & C. Grandvallet), f.p. 23 November 1872, Théâtre de l'Athénée, Paris.
  • Piccolino, opéra comique (3 acts, Sardou & Nuitter, after Sardou), f.p. 11 April 1876, Opéra-Comique (Favart), Paris.
  • Le Feu, opéra (Gondinet), incomplete, f.p. 9 March 1879, Paris.
  • Galante Aventure, opéra comique (3 acts, L. Davyl & Silvestre), f.p. 23 March 1882, Opéra-Comique (Favart), Paris.
  • Le Baron Frick (Ernest Depré, Clairville), operetta in 1 act (1885), written in collaboration with Georges Pfeiffer, Victorin de Joncières, and Francis Thomé.
  • Frédégonde, drame lyrique (5 acts, Gallet, after A. Thierry: Les récits des temps mérovingiens), incomplete; Acts 1–3 orch. by Paul Dukas, Acts 4–5 & ballet completed by Camille Saint-Saëns; f.p. 18 December 1895, Opéra at the Palais Garnier, Paris.

References

  1. ^ Macdonald 2001; Wright 1992; NY Times 1892. Chisholm (1911) gives his birthdate as 26 June 1837.
  2. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ Fath, Rolf. Report from Dortmund. Opera, November 2022, Vol.72 No.11, p1369-70.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Guiraud, Ernest" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • OCLC 419285866
    (eBook).
  • NY Times (1892). "Obituary: Ernest Guiraud", The New York Times, 8 May 1892.
  • Wright, Lesley A. (1992). "Guiraud, Ernest", vol. 2, p. 576, in
    ISBN 0-935859-92-6
    .

External links
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