Everything about Ernest Guiraud totally explained
Ernest Guiraud (
June 26,
1837 –
May 6,
1892) was a
French composer and music teacher born in
New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for
Bizet's opera
Carmen and for
Offenbach's opera
Les contes d'Hoffmann (
The Tales of Hoffmann).
Biography
Ernest Guiraud began his schooling in Louisiana under the tutelage of his father, Jean-Baptiste-Louis Guiraud, who had won the
Prix de Rome in
1827. At age 15, he set a full-length
libretto about
King David to music that 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
France to continue his musical education. He studied
piano under
Marmontel and
composition under
Halévy at the
Paris Conservatoire. Remarkably gifted as a student, he was awarded first prize for piano in
1858. He won the
Prix de Rome the next year, notably, the only instance of both father and son obtaining this prize. He became close friends with
Camille Saint-Saëns,
Emile Paladilhe,
Théodore Dubois, and especially
Georges Bizet.
Giraud entered his profession by writing one-act stage works that served as "curtain raisers" for evenings of theatrical entertainment. 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 Giraud'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
opéra comique first performed in
1876, represents the peak of his career. An appealing
sorrentino sung by
Célestine Marié, known as Galli-Marié, and a brilliant and effective
ballet entitled
Carnaval (a movement from his "First Orchestral Suite") enabled the work achieve a long run. However, the opera was never revived.
After Bizet's death, Giraud collected Bizet's original scores and published the frequently performed
L'Arlésienne Suite Number Two.
Guiraud is perhaps most famous for constructing the infamous orchestral accompaniments—both beloved and criticized—for the recitatives that replaced the spoken dialogue in performances of Bizet's opera
Carmen for more than a century. He also wrote the recitatives and completed the score of
Jacques Offenbach's masterpiece
Les contes d'Hoffman (
The Tales of Hoffmann) which was left unfinished at Offenbach's death. Guiraud's version was very popular but it wasn't 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
Gretna Green, given at the
Paris Opéra (
1873),
Caprice for violin and orchestra (
1885), and
Chasse fantastique, a symphonic poem (
1887), are best known.
Beginning in
1876, Guiraud taught at the Paris Conservatoire. He was a founding member of the
Société Nationale de Musique and the author of an excellent treatise on instrumentation. In
1891, Guiraud was elected member of the
Académie des beaux-arts and was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire to replace
Victor Massé. Guiraud's teaching methods for harmony and orchestration were highly respected and recognized in musical circles. His musical theories had a strong and beneficial influence on
Claude Debussy, whose notes were published by Maurice Emmanuel in his book devoted to
Pelléas et Mélisande.
Paul Dukas,
Erik Satie, and
André Gedalge are also counted among his students.
Guiraud devoted the years
1891 and
1892 to completing the orchestration for
Kassya, a five-act opera
Léo Delibes. However, it was left unfinished due to his own untimely death in Paris at age 54.
Operas
- David, opéra (3 acts, after A. Soumet & F. Mallefille: Le roi David), 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 (Favart), Paris.
- Le coupe du roi de Thulé, opéra (3 acts, L. Gallet & E. 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 & C. 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 Athénée, Paris.
- Piccolino, opéra comique (3 acts, V. Sardou & Nuitter, after Sardou), f.p. 11 April 1876, Opéra Comique (Favart), Paris.
- Le feu, opéra (E. Gondinet), incomplete, f.p. 9 March 1879, Paris.
- Galante Aventure, opéra comique (3 acts, L. Davyl & A. Silvestre), f.p. 23 March 1882, Opéra Comique (Favart), Paris.
- 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, Paris.
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