Marcel Auguste Louis Samuel-Rousseau (

né The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Rousseau; 18 August 1882 – 11 June 1955) was a French composer, organist, and opera director.Griffiths & Langham Smith 1992.

Life and career

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he was the son of

Samuel Rousseau Samuel Rousseau may refer to: * Samuel Rousseau (orientalist), British Oriental scholar and printer * Samuel Rousseau (composer), French composer * Samuel Rousseau (artist), French artist {{hndis, Rousseau, Samuel ...

and later changed his surname to Samuel-Rousseau to reflect this. He studied composition at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

and was awarded the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1905. He married on 4 March 1907 in the 9^me arrondissement. He was the organist at

Saint-Séverin Saint-Séverin (; ) is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. Geography The Lizonne forms the commune's eastern border, then flows into the Dronne, which forms the commune's southern border. Population See also *Com ...

from 1919 to 1922 and president of the

Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique The Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music or SACEM () is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers, and music publisher A mus ...

(SACEM) from 1935 to 1953. For many years he was a professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire and artistic director of the Pathé opera company. He was the father of

laureate

Éveline Plicque-Andréani Éveline Plicque-Andréani, née Boudon (January 25, 1929 – October 16, 2018), was a French composer, musicologist and pedagogue, winner of the Prix de Rome for musical composition in 1950. Biography Éveline Plicque-Andréani, born in the 13th ...

. From 1941 to 1944 he was director of the

Paris Opéra The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

. He died in

in 1955, aged 72.

Works

As a composer, Samuel-Rousseau was highly influenced by the works of

Franck Franck can refer to: People * Franck (name) Other * Franck, Argentina, town in Santa Fe Province, Argentina * Franck (company), Croatian coffee and snacks company * Franck (crater), Lunar crater named after James Franck See also * Franc (di ...

and Fauré. He tended to be more conservative in style than many of his contemporaries but he was a master at chromatic harmony and had a strong sense for the dramatic. His compositions include

operas Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a li ...

ballets Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

and piano music and

songs A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usuall ...

. His best works are his operas, which tend towards the exotic and are ambitious in scale. His first opera, ''Le Roi Arthur'', was based on the legend of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

and given a concert performance at the Conservatoire on 8 November 1903. His second, ''Tarass Boulba'', was based on the legend of a Cossack warrior and performed at the

Théâtre du Vaudeville The Théâtre du Vaudeville () was a theatre company in Paris. It opened on 12 January 1792 on rue de Chartres. Its directors, Pierre-Antoine-Augustin de Piis, Piis and Yves Barré, Barré, mainly put on "petites pièces mêlées de couplets s ...

, beginning on 22 November 1919. ''Le Hulla'', a four-act ''conte-lyrique-orental'' with words by André Rivoire, was premiered on 9 March 1923 by the

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief riva ...

at the

Salle Favart The Salle Favart (), officially the Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique (), is a Paris opera house and theatre, the current home of the Opéra-Comique. It was built from 1893 to 1898 in a neo-Baroque style to the designs of the French architect Louis ...

in a production by

Albert Carré Albert Carré (; born Strasbourg 22 June 1852, died Paris 12 December 1938) was a French theatre director, opera director, actor and librettist. He was the nephew of librettist Michel Carré (1821–1872) and cousin of cinema director Michel Ca ...

. The performances were conducted by Albert Wolff; Yvonne Brothier sang Dilara, and Charles Friant, Narsès. The opera included a Persian dance choreographed by Louise Stichel and danced by Mona Païva. It was revived in 1926 and performed a total of 44 times by the company. ''Le bon roi Dagobert'', a four-act ''comédie musicale'' with words by André Rivoire, based on his 1908 play with the same title, was presented by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart beginning on 5 December 1927. Emma Luart sang La Reine, Charles Friant was Dagobert, and

Louis Fourestier Louis (Félix André) Fourestier (31 May 1892 – 30 September 1976) was a French conductor, composer and pedagogue, and was one of the founders of the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. Early years, compositions and prizes Fourestier was born in Mo ...

conducted. The opera was revived in a new production by in 1938, 1939, and 1943, with

Vina Bovy Vina Bovy (Malvina Bovi Van Overberghe) born in Ghent on 22 May 1900, died in the same city on 16 May 1983 was a Belgian operatic soprano.Harold Rosenthal, Rosenthal H., "Vina Bovy". In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & Ne ...

as the Queen and Louis Arnoult as Dagobert, by which time it had been performed a total of 72 times by the company.Wolff 1953, p. 32. His one-act opera ''Kerkeb'', with a libretto by

Michel Carré Michel Carré (; 20 October 1821, Besançon – 27 June 1872, Argenteuil) was a prolific French librettist. He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing li ...

(based on a novel by

Elissa Rhaïs Elissa Rhaïs (), born Rosine Boumendil (12 December 1876 – 18 August 1940) was a History of the Jews in Algeria, Jewish-Algerian writer, who adopted the persona of a Muslim woman who had escaped from a harem to further her literary career. He ...

), was premiered on 6 April 1951 by the

Opéra This is a glossary list of opera genres, giving alternative names. "Opera" is an Italian word (short for "opera in musica"); it was not at first ''commonly'' used in Italy (or in other countries) to refer to the genre of particular works. Most co ...

at the

Palais Garnier The (, Garnier Palace), also known as (, Garnier Opera), is a historic 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the ...

.Wolff 1962, p. 131. The title role, a

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

dancer in a harem, was sung by

Géori Boué Georgette "Géori" Boué (16 October 1918 – 5 January 2017) was a French soprano, particularly associated with the French repertory, especially Marguérite, '' Thais'' and Salomé (Massenet). She was born in Toulouse. Following her career in ...

, and

Roger Bourdin Roger Bourdin (14 June 1900 in Paris – 14 September 1973 in Paris) was a French baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory. His career was largely based in France. His daughter is Françoise Bourdin. Life and career Born in t ...

sang Sid-Haffid. The performances were conducted by Louis Fourestier. The opera was revived in 1956 with Suzanne Sarroca in the title role. The opera had been performed a total of 26 times by the company by its last performance on 12 July 1958.

Notes

Bibliography

* Griffiths, Paul; Richard Langham Smith (1992). "Samuel-Rousseau ousseau Marcel ouis Auguste, vol. 4, p. 161, in ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', edited by Stanley Sadie, and
Online version
updated 26 October 2011. * Wild, Nicole; Charlton, David (2005). ''Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique Paris: répertoire 1762-1972''. Sprimont, Belgium: Editions Mardaga. . * Wolff, Stéphane (1953). ''Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900-1950).'' Paris: André Bonne. * Wolff, Stéphane (1962). ''L'Opéra au Palais Garnier (1875–1962)''. Paris: Deposé au journal L'Entr'acte. . Paris: Slatkine (1983 reprint) .

External links

* 1882 births 1955 deaths 20th-century French classical composers Conservatoire de Paris alumni French opera composers French opera directors French male opera composers Composers from Paris Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Prix de Rome for composition 20th-century French male musicians {{france-composer-stub