Fromental Halévy – His Life & Music 1799-1862

Description Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, known as Fromental Halévy, lived during one of the most eventful periods of French history, witnessing the fall of Napoleon, the rise and decline of constitutional monarchy, the re-emergence and demise of a new wave of republicanism and the establishment of the Second Empire. Far from living in an ivory tower he took part in what was happening around him, sometimes reflecting it in his music. Above all he was a composer of opera, that magic spectacle which fuses together drama, music, dance and art. His music was innovative, demanding, captivating. Many of his thirty-two performed operas were all the rage in Europe and the USA, while Queen Victoria was reported ‘highly pleased’ with La Tempesta, commissioned by Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. Wagner, in spite of his Das Judethum in der Musik, thought highly of La Juive and praised it to the end of his life. Although not a practising Jew, Halévy set to music several psalms in Hebrew for liturgical use in French synagogues. At a time which saw the ascendance in Paris of French-born composers like Boieldieu, Hérold, Auber and Adam over their Italian contemporaries, he was the acknowledged leader of the nascent French school. This is the first full-length biography of Halévy this century, including hitherto unpublished excerpts from his diary and correspondence.