Henri Théodore Ymbert (10 July 1827 in Auteuil, Yvelines – 22 September 1894 at
Bourbonne-les-Bains
Bourbonne-les-Bains () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France in the region Grand Est.Jean-Gilbert Ymbert, who also practised as a legal administrator. Following in the family profession of law, he also studied composition under
Auguste Barbereau
Mathurin Auguste Balthasar Barbereau (14 November 1799 – 14 July 1879) was a French composer and music theorist.
Barberau was born in Paris. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1810 and received numerous prizes. He was awarded with the Pri ...
. His musical activity in Paris over the years 1858 – 69 consisted for the most part in settings for voice. Two works were his most successful: the music for the one-act
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
''Les Deux Cadis'' (1861); and his ''Sept Fables de la Fontaine'', which was preferred to
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...
’s settings of
La Fontaine's Fables
Jean de La Fontaine collected fables from a wide variety of sources, both Western and Eastern, and adapted them into French free verse. They were issued under the general title of Fables in several volumes from 1668 to 1694 and are considered cla ...
when it was first performed in 1862, and which continues to be performed.
Professionally Ymbert gained his doctorate in law and practised in the
Court of Appeal of Paris
The Court of Appeal of Paris (, ) is the largest appeals court in France in terms of the number of cases brought before it. Its jurisdiction covers the departments of Paris, Essonne, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne.
...
. As well as writing on both legal and musical subjects, he also collaborated in the revision of a number of administrative reference works. Among the latter was the ''Dictionnaire des formules ou mairie pratique contenant les modèles de tous les actes d'administration municipal'' (1880) and the ''Dictionnaire général d'administration'' (1884),Archived online /ref> for which he was qualified after serving as
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...