Fromental Halévy

Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (May 27, 1799 - March 17, 1862) (usually known as Fromental Halévy) was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera "La Juive".

Early career

Halévy was born in Paris, the son of a cantor, Elie Halfon Halévy, who was the secretary of the Jewish community of Paris, a writer and a teacher of Hebrew, and a French Jewish mother. The name Fromental, by which he was generally known, reflects that he was born on the feast-day of that name in the French Revolutionary calendar which was still operative at that time. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine or ten (accounts differ), in 1809, becoming a pupil and later protegé of Cherubini. After two second-place attempts, he won the Prix de Rome in 1819: his cantata subject was "Herminie."

As he had to delay his departure to Rome because of the death of his mother, he was able to accept the first commission that brought him to public attention - a ' "Marche Funebre et De Profundis en Hebreu" ' for three part choir, tenor and orchestra, which was commissioned by the "Consistoire Israélite du Département de la Seine", for a public service in memory of the assassinated duc de Berry, performed on March 24, 1820. Later, his brother Léon recalled that the "De Profundis", "infused with religious fervor, created a sensation, and attracted interest to the young laureate of the institute."

Halévy was chorus master at the Théâtre Italien, while he struggled to get an opera performed. Despite the mediocre reception of "L'artisan", at the Opéra-Comique in 1827, Halévy moved on to be chorus master at the Opéra. The same year he became professor of harmony and accompaniment at the Conservatoire, where he was professor of counterpoint and fugue in 1833 and of composition in 1840. He was elected to the Institut de France in 1836.

'La Juive'

With his opera "La Juive", in 1835, Halévy attained not only his first major triumph, but gave the world a work that was to be one of the cornerstones of the French repertory for a century, with the role of Eléazar one of the great favorites of tenors such as Enrico Caruso. The opera's most famous aria is Eléazar's "Rachel, quand du Seigneur" . Its orchestral ritornello is the one quotation from Halévy that Berlioz included in his "Treatise on Orchestration," for its unusual duet for two cor anglais. It is probable however that this aria was inserted only at the request of the great tenor Adolphe Nourrit, who premiered the role and may have suggested the aria's text. "La Juive" is one of the grandest of grand operas, with major choruses, a spectacular procession in Act I, and impressive celebrations in Act III. It culminates with the heroine plunging into a vat of boiling water in Act V. Mahler admired it greatly, stating: "I am absolutely overwhelmed by this wonderful, majestic work. I regard it as one of the greatest operas ever created". Other admirers included Richard Wagner who wrote an enthusiastic review of its premiere for the German press. (Wagner never showed towards Halévy the anti-Jewish animus that was so notorious a feature of his writings on Meyerbeer).

Later career

After "La Juive" Halévy's real successes were relatively few, although at least three operas, "L'éclair, La reine de Chypre" and "Charles VI" should be mentioned. Heine commented that Halévy was an artist, but 'without the slightest spark of genius'. He became however a leading bureaucrat of the arts, becoming Secretary of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and presiding over committees to determine the standard pitch of orchestral A, to award prizes for operettas, and so on. The artist Delacroix offers a chilling portrait of Halévy's decline in his diaries (5 February 1855):

I went on to Halévy’s house, where the heat from his stove was suffocating. His wretched wife has crammed his house with bric-a-brac and old furniture, and this new craze will end by driving him to a lunatic asylum. He has changed and looks much older, like a man who is being dragged on against his will. How can he possibly do serious work in this confusion? His new position at the Academy must take up a great deal of his time, and make it more and more difficult for him to find the peace and quiet he needs for his work. Left that inferno as quickly as possible. The breath of the streets seemed positively delicious.

Halévy's cantata "Prométhée enchaîné" was premiered in 1849 at the Paris Conservatoire, and is generally considered the first mainstream western orchestral composition to use quarter tones.

Halévy died in retirement at Nice, leaving his last opera, Noé, unfinished. It was completed by his son-in-law, Georges Bizet, but was not performed until 10 years after Bizet's own death.

Works

Halévy wrote some forty operas in all, including:
*"L'artisan" (1827)
* "Le roi et le batelier" (1827)
*"Clari" (1828), in Italian; a modest success, even with Maria Malibran in the starring role
*"La dilettante d'Avignon" (1828)
*"Attendre et courir" (1830)
*"La langue musicale" (1830)
*"La tentation" (1832)
*"Les souvenirs de Lafleur" (1833)
*"Ludovic" (1833), completion of an opera left unfinished by Hérold
*"La Juive" (1835), his first success
*"L'éclair" (1835), also a great success, in the same season
*"Guido et Ginevra" (1838)
* "Les treize" (1839)
*"Le shérif," (1839) which Hector Berlioz referred to as a "delightful comic opera"
*"Le drapier" (1839)
*"Le guitarréro" (1841)
*"La reine de Chypre" (1841) praised by Richard Wagner
*"Charles VI" (1843) (revived at Compiègne in 2005)
*"Le lazzarone, ou Le bien vient en dormant" (1844)
*"Les mousquetaires de la reine" (1846)
*"Les premiers pas" (1847)
*"Le val d'Andorre" (1848)
*"La fée aux roses" (1849)
*"La tempesta" (1850), in Italian, after Shakespeare's "The Tempest"
*"La dame de pique" (1850) (after Prosper Merimée)
*"Le Juif errant" (1852) after the novel by Eugène Sue
*"Le nabab" (1853)
*"Jaguarita l'Indienne" (1855)
*"L'inconsolable" (1855)
*"Valentine d'Aubigny" (1856)
*"La magicienne"(1858)
*"Noé" (1858-1862): uncompleted at Halévy's death, completed by Georges Bizet

Halévy also wrote for the ballet, provided incidental music for a French version of Aeschylus's "Prometheus Enchained", and wrote cantatas.

Halévy's Family

Halévy's brother was the writer and historian Léon Halévy, who wrote an early biography of his brother and was the father of Ludovic Halévy, librettist of many French operas, including Bizet's Carmen.

Halévy's wife, Léonie, who had experienced serious mental problems during their marriage, underwent a remarkable recovery after his death and became a talented sculptress. (She was 20 years younger than he). Their daughter Genéviève married the composer Bizet, who had been one of Halévy's pupils at the Conservatoire. After Bizet's death, and an alliance with Delaborde, the son of Charles-Valentin Alkan, Genéviève married a banker with Rothschild connections and became a leading Parisian hostess. Amongst the guests at her soirées was the young Marcel Proust, who used her as a model of the Duchesse de Guermantes in his epic "In Search of Lost Time".

Bibliography

*Léon Halévy, "F. Halévy, sa vie et ses oeuvres", Paris (1863).
* Ruth Jordan, "Fromental Halévy, his Life and Music 1799-1862", London (1994). ISBN 187108251X

External links

* [http://www.hberlioz.com/Predecessors/halevy.htm Hector Berlioz: relations with Halévy]
* [http://www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/La%20Juive.jpgJohn Ericson, "The First Orchestral Use of the Valved Horn: "La Juive"]
* [http://www.smerus.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/halevys.htm Halévy's background and family]
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=124&letter=H JewishEncyclopedia]