Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

Lakmé

The composer - Léo Delibes

Born February 21,1836–Died January 16, 1891

Léo Clément Philibert Delibes was born in St. Germain-du-Val, France, on February 21, 1836. His father worked for the post office, and his mother, who, after his father's death raised him with his uncle, was a musician and the daughter of an opera singer. When the family moved to Paris he entered the Conservatoire, although his career as a student, which included the study of composition under Adolphe Adam, was undistinguished. Decades later, when Delibes accepted the position of professor of composition at the Conservatoire, he admitted he knew nothing of fugue or counterpoint.

When he was 17 he became the organist of St. Pierre de Chaillot and accompanist for the Théâtre Lyrique. Although he continued for many years as a church organist and retained some interest in church music throughout his career—his one cantata Alger (1865) was well received but sank into obscurity soon after—it was the theater which captured the young composer's interest. Beginning with Deux sous le charbon (1856), written for the popular Folies-Nouvelles, Delibes produced over a dozen light operettas over the next 14 years, including the highly successful Deux vieilles gardes, one of several written for Offenbach's theater, the Bouffes-Parisiens.

In 1863, Le jardinier et son seigneur, his first effort at a more serious genre, the opéra comique, was presented at the Théâtre Lyrique, where he was appointed chorus master. His achievements at the Lyrique included the creation of the vocal score for Gounod's Faust. The following year he became chorus master at the Opéra Comique.
Delibes' first attempt at ballet music was a collaboration with Minkus in 1866, La source, but it was his Coppélia, premiered at the Opéra in 1870, that established him as the first serious French composer of ballet since Rameau. In the following year he left the Opéra, married Léontine Estelle Denain, and devoted himself full-time to composition.
His first opera, Le roi l'a dit, was staged at the Opéra in 1873, followed by the ballet Sylvia in 1876. His next opera, Jean di Nivelle (1880), a more serious work, was also an immediate success, but revived only once. In 1882, Le roi s'amuse, six episodes written in a pastiche of le style ancien, was presented at the Opéra; it was based on the same work by Victor Hugo that inspired Verdi's Rigoletto. Lakmé premiered at the Opéra on April 14, 1883.
He was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire in 1881, and elected to the Institute in 1884. After he died on January 16, 1891, his unfinished opera Kassya was completed by Massenet and staged at the Opéra two years later.

JANET MULLANY

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