Marcel Auguste Antoine Cariven, (18 April 1894,
Toulouse – 5 November 1979,
Crosne near Paris)
[Bibliothèque nationale de France entry for Marcel Cariven](_blank)
accessed 31 January 2015. was a French
conductor
Conductor or conduction may refer to:
Music
* Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra.
* ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas
* Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...
, particularly associated with light music and with operetta.
Alain Pâris
Alain Pâris (born 22 November 1947) is a French conductor and musicologist.
Biography
Born in Paris, Alain Pâris was trained as a pianist and has a law degree. He studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux, Paul Paray and Georg Solti and won the ...
: ''Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interprétation musicale au XXe siècle.'' Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris, 1995 (p890).
Life and career
Cariven undertook musical studies firstly at the conservatoire in Toulouse, then in Paris, where he was a pupil of
Xavier Leroux,
Paul Vidal, and
André Gedalge
André Gedalge (27 December 1856 – 5 February 1926) was a French composer and teacher.
Biography
André Gedalge was born at 75 rue des Saints-Pères in Paris where he first worked as a bookseller and editor, specialising in ''livres de prix' ...
where he won first prizes in harmony, music history and composition.
Having led the orchestra of several musical theatres in Paris, Cariven conducted one for the first time at the
Théâtre de l'Apollo in ''
La Veuve Joyeuse''.
This was followed by many other lyric engagements, including the
Bouffes-Parisiens,
Marigny,
Mogador and
Gaîté-Lyrique.
However, he was also active in symphonic music, ballet and film music and worked with composers such as
André Messager,
Reynaldo Hahn,
Maurice Yvain and
Louis Beydts.
During the 1930s at
Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens he conducted ''Azor'', an opérette by Gaston Gabaroche in 1932, followed by ''La Pouponnière'' and ''Un soir de réveillon'' the same year, ''Ô mon bel inconnu'', a comédie musicale by Reynaldo Hahn in 1933 with
Arletty and
Simone Simon among the cast, ''Toi c'est moi'' in 1934, and ''Trois valses'', an operetta with music from the Strauss family (Johann I, Johann II and Oscar) in 1937 in a production by
Pierre Fresnay, with
Yvonne Printemps among the cast.
[’L'encyclopédie multimedia de la comédie musicale théâtrale en France (1918-1940)’ (http://194.254.96.55/cm/?for=fic&cletechni=1732), page for Cariven accessed 27.07.17.] During the war years he conducted a revival of ''
Les cent vierges'' by Lecocq in September 1942 at the Apollo theatre in Paris.
[Marcel Cariven search in Les Archives du Spectacle.net](_blank)
accessed 28 July 2017.
Cariven made his debut at the Paris
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...
in December 1947 with ''
Manon
''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was first ...
''.
[Wolff S. ''Un demi-siecle d'Opéra-Comique.'' André Bonne, Paris, 1953.] From the 1950s to the early 1970s he was active at French Radio, conducting many operetta recordings
some of which have subsequently been issued commercially.
For one of his last performances, the Opera critic noted about Offenbach's ''
La fille du tambour-major'' that "the veteran Marcel Cariven... may, like some other senior conductors, stagger to the rostrum, but once there he knows how to bring out all the lightness and gaiety of Offenbach's score, and the orchestra and cast headed by Dominique Tirmont and some of the best Offenbach singers in France - Michael Pieri, Florence Raynal,
Jean-Christophe Benoît, Bernard Plantey - so obviously enjoy working with him”.
Recordings
Cariven made several recordings in the 1930s and 40s, and later for French radio:
Hahn - ''Beaucoup de bruit pour rien'' 'musique de scène' (1936, Voix de son maître)
Schubert songs (Ständchen, Die Forelle and others) with the tenor
Georges Thill (1935, Columbia)
Pierné - ''Fragonard'' - two excerpts (1943, Pathé)
Donizetti - ''
Don Pasquale'' - excerpts, with
Vina Bovy
Vina Bovy (Malvina Bovi Van Overberghe) born Ghent 22 May 1900, died in the same city 16 May 1983 was a Belgian operatic soprano. Rosenthal H., "Vina Bovy". In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997.
She studied ...
and
Luis Mariano (1944 Voix de son maître)
Adam - ''
Si j'étais roi
''Si j'étais roi'' (English: ''If I Were King'') is an opéra comique in three acts by Adolphe Adam. The libretto was written by Adolphe d'Ennery and Jules-Henri Brésil. It was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Hi ...
'' - Overture, with
Orchestre Lamoureux (1947, Pathé)
Planquette - ''
Les Cloches de Corneville'' with Orchestre Lamoureux (1947, Pathé)
Waldteufel - various waltzes (1943, 1945, 1947, Pathé)
Audran - ''Le Grand Mogol'' - excerpts with the Orchestre Lamoureux (1948, Pathé)
Offenbach - ''
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein'' - excerpts with the Orchestre Lamoureux (1948, Pathé)
Hahn - ''
Ciboulette
''Ciboulette'' is a French opérette in three acts, music by Reynaldo Hahn, libretto by Robert de Flers and Francis de Croisset, first performed at the Théâtre des Variétés, in Paris, on 7 April 1923. One of the most elegant and refined compo ...
'' with l'
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (1952, Pathé)
Christiné - ''
Phi-Phi
''Phi-Phi'' is an opérette légère in three acts with music by Henri Christiné and a French libretto by Albert Willemetz and Fabien Solar. The piece was one which founded the new style of French comédie musicale, the first to really use the la ...
'' - selection (1952, Pathé)
Hervé - ''
Mam'zelle Nitouche'' - selection (1953, Pathé)
Varney - ''
Les Mousquetaires au couvent
''Les mousquetaires au couvent'' (''The Musketeers at the Convent'') is an opérette in three acts by Louis Varney, with a libretto by Jules Prével and Paul Ferrier, after the 1835 vaudeville ''L'habit ne fait pas le moine'' by Amable de Saint-Hi ...
'' (1953, Pathé)
Hervé - ''Le Retour d'Ulysse'' and ''Trombolino'', with
Jean Giraudeau and
Denise Duval (1956, Gaieté Lyrique)
Lehár - ''
Le Pays des Sourires'' (1956, Pathé)
Offenbach - ''
La Vie parisienne'' (1956, Philips)
Lehár - ''Frasquita'' (1956, Véga)
Scotto - ''Violettes impériales'' (1961, Véga)
Lecocq - "Ali Baba" (1961, Classical Moments)
Offenbach - ''
La Créole
''La créole'' is an ''opéra comique'' in three acts of 1875 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was by Albert Millaud, with additional material by Henri Meilhac. It was one of three full-length stage works written almost simult ...
'' (1969, Bourg)
recordings on file in which the conductor is Marcel Cariven at Operadis
accessed 27 July 2017.[Discographical data from 'Cariven' search in The CHARM Discography, Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music, , accessed 12 July 2017.]
References
External links
Marcel Cariven
on data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cariven, Marcel
1894 births
French classical musicians
French male conductors (music)
1979 deaths
Musicians from Toulouse
20th-century French conductors (music)
20th-century French male musicians