Gaston Salvayre

Gaston Salvayre, (24 June 1847 in Toulouse – 17 May 1916 in Ramonville-Saint-Agne was a French composer and music critic, who won the prix de Rome for composition in 1872.[1]

Gaston Salvayre

Biography

Born Gervais Bernard Gaston Salvayre in Toulouse, he attended the Toulouse Conservatory. Later he went to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied piano with Antoine François Marmontel, organ with François Benoist, harmony with François Bazin, and composition with Ambroise Thomas. He received first prize in organ and competed five times unsuccessfully for the Prix de Rome in composition before winning the Premier Grand Prix in 1872 with the dramatic scene Calypso. In Rome he composed several pieces which were presented in Paris: Ouverture symphonique and ballet music for Albert Grisar's opera Les Amours du diable in 1874, and La résurrection, symphonie biblique, in 1876 (renamed La vallée de Josaphat in 1882).[2]

He became the chorus master of the Opéra Populaire at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 1874.[3] For several years he was a music critic for the periodical Gil Blas. He became Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1880.[2]

His grand opera La dame de Monsoreau, with a libretto by Auguste Maquet based on the play by Maquet and Alexandre Dumas, was commissioned by the Paris Opera and premiered at the Palais Garnier on 30 January 1888. It was not very successful and was withdrawn after its eighth performance.[4]

Works
  • 1872: Calypso, cantata, by Gaston Salvayre and Paul Hillemacher.
  • 1877: Le Bravo, opera in 4 acts, libretto by Emile Blavet, premiered on 18 April 1877 at the Opéra-National-Lyrique (Paris) with Cécile Mézeray as Violetta Tiepolo
  • 1877: Le Fandango, ballet-pantomime in 1 act, on a libretto by Louis-Alexandre Mérante, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, Paris, Académie nationale de musique, 26 November 1877.
  • ????: Songs: Aubades Toi, la beauté, toi la jeunesse - J'ai cherché le repos; Chanson mauresque, Les filles d'Afrique - Chansons diverses J'aime dans le rayon (poem also used by Tchaikovsky). Viens-tu pas ma belle, c'est l'heure - Réveil d'amour, on texts by Paul Collin.
  • 1886: Egmont, lyrical drama in 4 acts, libretto by Albert Millaud and Albert Wolff, premiered in Paris, Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique, 6 December 1886.
  • 1888: La Dame de Monsoreau.
  • 1897: Noël méridional : La Maisonnette, mélodie on a poem by Édouard Guinand.[5]

References
  1. Gaston Salvayre on Musica et memoria
  2. John Trevitt, "Salvayre, (Gervais Bernard) Gaston", Oxford Music online, 2001, subscription required.
  3. Wild, Nicole ([1989]). Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle: les théâtres et la musique, p. 344. Paris: Aux Amateurs de livres. ISBN 9780828825863. ISBN 9782905053800 (paperback). View formats and editions at WorldCat.
    • Pitou, Spire (1990). The Paris Opéra: An Encyclopedia of Operas, Ballets, Composers, and Performers. Growth and Grandeur, 1815–1914, pp. 292–295. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313262180.
  5. Édouard Guinand on Bibliothèque nationale de France
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