{"id":1885,"date":"2014-09-25T16:40:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T20:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2014-12-05T17:09:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-05T22:09:44","slug":"newly-digitized-halevy-vocal-scores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/2014\/09\/25\/newly-digitized-halevy-vocal-scores\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Digitized: Hal\u00e9vy Vocal Scores"},"content":{"rendered":"

We continue our digitization of 19th-century French opera with a set of vocal scores from the lengthy catalogue of Fromental Hal\u00e9vy (1799-1862). As a student of Cherubini at the Paris Conservatoire, Hal\u00e9vy twice won the second prize\u00a0in the Prix de Rome, followed in 1819 by the\u00a0premier prix<\/em>.\u00a0After his return\u00a0to Paris, Hal\u00e9vy\u00a0took a teaching position in the Conservatoire, where he was made professor in 1827. <\/p>\n

Simultaneously, he held positions as\u00a0chef du chant<\/em>, first at the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre-Italien (1826-1829), and then the Op\u00e9ra (1829-1845). At the Op\u00e9ra, Hal\u00e9vy managed\u00a0budgets, rehearsal schedules, and some\u00a0personnel, audition, and casting\u00a0decisions in addition to his work directing\u00a0the chorus; his influence helped to shape the sound and repertoire of the institution, and he was sometimes\u00a0accused\u00a0of promoting his operas at the expense of Donizetti and other composers (Hallman 2009, 40-43). While Hal\u00e9vy\u00a0was\u00a0surpassed in popularity on the grand opera stage by composers like Meyerbeer and Auber, his name was nonetheless familiar to the public: he contributed a stream of grand operas and op\u00e9ras-comiques<\/em> to the Paris scene\u00a0from the late 1820s through the 1850s, to which the\u00a0always-exuberant French musical press responded with reviews of the productions (sometimes positive, often tepid\u00a0or even\u00a0scathing), commentary on his place in the theatrical world, and gossip (displaying varying degrees of\u00a0antisemitism).<\/p>\n

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\"Fromental<\/a>

Fromental Hal\u00e9vy, hand-colored title page, L\u2019\u00e9clair, Mus 693.4.610.3 (click to enlarge)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Included in this set of scores are\u00a0Hal\u00e9vy’s only work for the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre-Italien,\u00a0Clari<\/em> (1828), written for Maria Malibran, as well as four works for the Op\u00e9ra-Comique: Le Dilettante d’Avignon<\/em> (1829), La Langue Musicale<\/em> (1830), L’Éclair<\/em> (1835), and Le Guitarrero<\/em> (1841). We have not yet digitized our copies of\u00a0La Juive<\/em> (1835), Hal\u00e9vy’s greatest success and first opera for the Acad\u00e9mie Royale de Musique, but his compositions\u00a0for the Op\u00e9ra are represented by the grand operas\u00a0Guido et Ginevra<\/em> (1838), La Reine de Chypre<\/em> (1841),\u00a0Charles VI<\/em> (1843) and Le Lazzarone<\/em> (1844).<\/p>\n