Delibes
NAME: Delibes, Clement Philibert Leo.
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Delibes was the first to write music of high quality for the ballet.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None.
DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH: February 21st 1836, St Germain du Val, France.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: January 16th 1891, Paris, France. Aged 64.
DISCIPLINE: Opera and ballet composer.
FIELD: Music
LANGUAGE: French.
PARENTS:
SIBLINGS: Only child.
SPOUSE: Married Leontine Estelle Denain in 1871
CHILDREN:
EDUCATION: Paris Conservatoire.
MAJOR WORKS: Opera 'Lakme' (1883) and the Ballets 'Coppelia' (1870) and 'Sylvia' (1876)
LIFE AND TIMES: Delibes's father was in the postal service, while his mother, an able musician, was the daughter of an opera singer and sister of the organist Edouard Batiste.
In 1853, at the age of 17, Delibes became organist of St Pierre de Chaillot and also accompanist at the Theatre-Lyrique . Although he remained a church organist until 1871, he was, however, drawn more to the theatre.
For a short time around 1858, he wrote criticism for the 'Gaulois Hebdomadaire' under a pseudonym, but he started to establish himself in his own name at Herve's theatre, the highly successful Folies-Nouvelles. It was here, in 1856, that his first stage work was performed. 'Deux sous de charbon', an 'asphyxie lyrique' was performed in one act and was the first of his many light operettas.
Many were written for the Bouffes-Parisiens ( Offenbach's* theatre) including his second piece, 'Deux vieilles gardes', which enjoyed enormous success, largely for his gift for witty melody and lightness of touch. Delibes went on to produce roughly one piece a year for the next 14 years, showing both elegance and charm in his creations.
In 1863, the Theatre-Lyrique put on Delibes' 'Le jardinier et son seigneur', a comic opera and an attempt at a less frivolous genre. As chorus master at this theatre, Delibes worked on Gounod's* 'Faust', arranging the vocal score; on Bizet's* 'Les pecheurs de perles,' and on Berlioz's* 'Les troyens a Carthage'.
In 1864 he became chorus master at the Opera. It was here that in 1866 he appeared for the first time as a ballet composer, collaborating with Louis Minkus on 'La source', which proved to be highly successful. In 1869 he composed his last operetta, 'La cour du roi Petaud', for the Varietes.
The decisive event in Delibes' career was the production of his ballet 'Coppelia, ou La fille aux yeux d'Email', which opened at the Opera on May 2nd, 1870. Based on E.T.A. Hoffmann*’s story, it has remained one of the best loved of all classical ballets and shows Delibes' musical gifts at their most appealing.
Delibes decided to resign from his post at the Opera in 1871and married Leontine Estelle Denain. At this time, he devoted himself wholly to composition and although he now wrote fewer works, the works that he did produced were larger in scale and conception.
In 1873 the Opera-Comique staged 'Le roi l'a dit', a comedy set in the time of Louis XIV, and in 1876 his second full-scale ballet 'Sylvia', on a mythological subject, was played at the Opera. Four years later, in 1880, Delibes completed 'Jean de Nivelle', a more serious work which was an immediate success.
In 1881 Delibes succeeded Reber as professor of composition at the Conservatoire, despite his renowned lack of confidence, which seemed to increase with age, and his own admission that he knew nothing of fugue and counterpoint.
During 1882, Delibes wrote six pastiche pieces for Hugo's* play 'Le Roi s'amuse', and in the same year, he attended the Wagner festival at Bayreuth in Germany. Although he admired Wagner’s work, this modern style had no influence on his own.
The following year, on April 14th 1883, his opera 'Lakme' appeared at the Opera-Comique. The success of this particularly splendid production was lasting, due mainly to three ingredients: its oriental colour, the superb part for the title role, and the two principal male characters, Nilakantha and Grald. All three elements were firmly drawn together with a well-constructed libretto and the melodic and theatrically strong music upon which Delibes' fame has rested.
In 1884 he was elected to the French Institute, and another opera, 'Kassya' was completed, although not immediately orchestrated.
Delibes and Bizet, although never close friends, had much in common. They had each contributed to 'Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre', and Delibes had attended the premiere of Bizet’s 'Carmen', which he composed just prior to his death.
The works produced in Delibes’ later years presented further similarities to Bizet, and suggested Delibes’ desire to be distanced from Offenbach’s milieu. 'Lakme' is clearly close to Bizet’s 'Les pecheurs de perles' and 'Carmen', in which the two composers’ styles are very similar.
This too can be said of Delibes and Tchaikovsky*, two composers who have dominated the world of 19th Century ballet. It is said that Tchaikovsky had not heard Delibes’ ‘Coppelia’ before composing ‘Swan Lake’, although both works are extraordinary similar.
Delibes was in Paris at the time of his death in January 1891, at which time, his opera ‘Kassya’ had still not been orchestrated. The scoring was taken over by Massenet* and the very first performance of ‘Kassya’ was given at the Opera-Comique in 1893, two years after Delibes’ death.
ASSESSMENT: His workmanship was of the highest order; he had a natural gift for harmonic dexterity and a sure sense of orchestral colour, and nothing in his music is out of place.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Leo Delibes, major 19th century French composer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Fallows, David, Delibes, in New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan, 1980