Adolphe Deloffre
Encyclopedia
Louis Michel Adolphe Deloffre (28 July 1817, Paris
– 8 January 1876) was a French
violin
ist and conductor
active in London
and Paris
, who conducted several important operatic premieres in the latter city, particularly by Charles Gounod
and Georges Bizet
.
, and he became recognised for his fine playing. He then set out from Paris for London with the French conductor Jullien
and later became principal violinist at Her Majesty's Theatre
under Balfe
; he also played with the Philharmonic Society
, the Sacred Harmony Society and the Musical Union. He would return each year to give concerts in Paris with his wife, a distinguished pianist, and a cellist from the Opéra, Pilet. He returned permanently to Paris to settle in 1851.
In 1852, Alphonse Varney
, conductor of the Théâtre Lyrique
, was replaced by August Francis Placet whose place was in turn taken by Deloffre, just returned from London. For the 1853-54 season Deloffre was promoted from principal violinist and assistant conductor to principal conductor. Hector Berlioz
had criticisms of Deloffre's conducting style: he conducted with his bow
while stamping his foot at the same time and sometimes tapping his bow on the prompter
's box. However, Berlioz later praised Deloffre's conducting of the first performance of Les Troyens à Carthage
in 1863.
As principal conductor at the Théâtre-Lyrique he conducted an important series of revivals of Mozart
operas, starting with The Marriage of Figaro
(as Les noces de Figaro) in May 1858 (he also conducted the premiere at the Opéra-Comique
in 1872), then in May 1859 Die Entführung aus dem Serail
(as L’Enlèvement au Sérail), Così fan tutte
(as Peines d’Amours perdues) in March 1863, The Magic Flute
(as La flute enchantée) in February 1865, and Don Giovanni
(as Don Juan in a translation by Henri Trianon
) in 1866.
In addition Deloffre conducted other important operas: Oberon
(in French) in February 1857 at the Théâtre-Lyrique , Fidelio
(in French) in May 1860, Don Pasquale
(in French) in September 1864, and La traviata
(in French) in October 1864.
In 1858 Deloffre went to give concerts in Madrid
with other artists from the Théâtre-Lyrique and Opéra-Comique following the French victory in the Battle of Solferino
. On 18 November 1859 he conducted Berlioz’s arrangement of Gluck's
Orphée et Eurydice
. Deloffre was put in musical charge of a venture in 1868 to present opera at the Salle Ventadour
under the name of the Théâtre de la Renaissance
. He then moved to be principal conductor of the Opéra-Comique until his death.
He composed fantasies for violin and piano on themes from operas for his wife and himself to play, as well as string quartets. He left manuscripts of two symphonies, some piano trios, and other pieces for violin and piano.
Deloffre was a member of the Paris Conservatoire examination committees for strings, and for wind instruments, from 1871 until his death.
Deloffre was on the podium for several anniversary performances in Paris: the 500th performance of La fille du régiment
at the Opéra-Comique on 4 December 1871, the 1,000th performance Le Pré aux clercs
by Hérold at the Opéra-Comique on 7 December 1871, the 1,000th performance of Le Chalet by Adolphe Adam
at the Opéra-Comique on 18 January 1873, and the 500th ('travesty') performance of Les Rendez-Vous Bourgeois by Nicolas Isouard on 20 March 1873.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– 8 January 1876) was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
active in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, who conducted several important operatic premieres in the latter city, particularly by Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
and Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
.
Career
Deloffre's initial musical training was from his father, a violinist and guitarist. His violin teachers later included Bellon, de Lafont and BaillotPierre Baillot
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer.Baillot was born in Passy and studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti...
, and he became recognised for his fine playing. He then set out from Paris for London with the French conductor Jullien
Louis Antoine Jullien
Louis Antoine Jullien was a French conductor and composer of light music.Jullien was born in Sisteron, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and was baptised Louis George Maurice Adolphe Roche Albert Abel Antonio Alexandre Noë Jean Lucien Daniel Eugène Joseph-le-brun Joseph-Barême Thomas Thomas Thomas-Thomas...
and later became principal violinist at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
under Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe was an Irish composer, best-remembered for his opera The Bohemian Girl.After a short career as a violinist, Balfe pursued an operatic singing career, while he began to compose. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he composed 38 operas, almost 250 songs and other works...
; he also played with the Philharmonic Society
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
, the Sacred Harmony Society and the Musical Union. He would return each year to give concerts in Paris with his wife, a distinguished pianist, and a cellist from the Opéra, Pilet. He returned permanently to Paris to settle in 1851.
In 1852, Alphonse Varney
Alphonse Varney
Alphonse Varney was a French conductor, mainly of opera. His son was the composer Louis Varney who studied music with his father.-Education:He studied at the Paris Conservatoire including counterpoint with Reicha....
, conductor of the Théâtre Lyrique
Théâtre Lyrique
The Théâtre Lyrique was one of four opera companies performing in Paris during the middle of the 19th century . The company was founded in 1847 as the Opéra-National by the French composer Adolphe Adam and renamed Théâtre Lyrique in 1852...
, was replaced by August Francis Placet whose place was in turn taken by Deloffre, just returned from London. For the 1853-54 season Deloffre was promoted from principal violinist and assistant conductor to principal conductor. Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
had criticisms of Deloffre's conducting style: he conducted with his bow
Bow (music)
In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....
while stamping his foot at the same time and sometimes tapping his bow on the prompter
Prompter
The prompter in an opera house gives the singers the opening words of each phrase a few seconds early. Prompts are mouthed silently or hurled lyrically in a half-voice, audible only on stage...
's box. However, Berlioz later praised Deloffre's conducting of the first performance of Les Troyens à Carthage
Les Troyens
Les Troyens is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid...
in 1863.
As principal conductor at the Théâtre-Lyrique he conducted an important series of revivals of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
operas, starting with The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
(as Les noces de Figaro) in May 1858 (he also conducted the premiere at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
in 1872), then in May 1859 Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
(as L’Enlèvement au Sérail), Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
(as Peines d’Amours perdues) in March 1863, The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
(as La flute enchantée) in February 1865, and Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
(as Don Juan in a translation by Henri Trianon
Henri Trianon
Henri Trianon was a French critic, translator and librettist.He was an artistic and literary critic in Paris also becoming a teacher. In 1842 he became under-librarian of Sainte Geneviève, and librarian there in 1849...
) in 1866.
In addition Deloffre conducted other important operas: Oberon
Oberon (opera)
Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath is a 3-act romantic opera in English with spoken dialogue and music by Carl Maria von Weber. The libretto by James Robinson Planche was based on a German poem, Oberon, by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, a French...
(in French) in February 1857 at the Théâtre-Lyrique , Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
(in French) in May 1860, Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
(in French) in September 1864, and La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
(in French) in October 1864.
In 1858 Deloffre went to give concerts in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
with other artists from the Théâtre-Lyrique and Opéra-Comique following the French victory in the Battle of Solferino
Battle of Solferino
The Battle of Solferino, , was fought on June 24, 1859 and resulted in the victory of the allied French Army under Napoleon III and Sardinian Army under Victor Emmanuel II against the Austrian Army under Emperor Franz Joseph I; it was the last major battle in world...
. On 18 November 1859 he conducted Berlioz’s arrangement of Gluck's
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
Orphée et Eurydice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
. Deloffre was put in musical charge of a venture in 1868 to present opera at the Salle Ventadour
Salle Ventadour
The Salle Ventadour, a former Parisian theatre in the rue Neuve-Ventadour, now the rue Méhul , was built between 1826 and 1829 for the Opéra-Comique, to designs by Jacques-Marie Huvé, a prominent architect...
under the name of the Théâtre de la Renaissance
Théâtre de la Renaissance
The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on the Rue Méhul in the 2nd arrondissement.The current...
. He then moved to be principal conductor of the Opéra-Comique until his death.
He composed fantasies for violin and piano on themes from operas for his wife and himself to play, as well as string quartets. He left manuscripts of two symphonies, some piano trios, and other pieces for violin and piano.
Deloffre was a member of the Paris Conservatoire examination committees for strings, and for wind instruments, from 1871 until his death.
Premieres conducted by Deloffre
- Le muletier de Tolède, 16 December 1854, Théâtre-Lyrique
- Les dragons de VillarsLes dragons de VillarsLes dragons de Villars is an opéra-comique in three acts by Aimé Maillart to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Joseph-Philippe Lockroy.-Performance history:...
, 19 September 1856, Théâtre-Lyrique (and 100th at Opéra-Comique on 17 May 1874) - Le médecin malgré luiLe médecin malgré lui (opera)Le médecin malgré lui is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Molière's play, also entitled Le Médecin malgré lui.-Performance history:It premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris on 15 January 1858...
, 15 January 1858, Théâtre-Lyrique (also premiere at Opéra-Comique on 22 May 1872) - FaustFaust (opera)Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, 19 March 1859, Théâtre-Lyrique - Philémon et BaucisPhilémon et BaucisPhilémon et Baucis is an opera in three acts by Charles Gounod with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. The opera is based on the tale of Baucis and Philemon as told by La Fontaine...
, 18 February 1860, Théâtre-Lyrique (French premiere) - Les pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perlesLes pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
, 30 September 1863, Théâtre-Lyrique - Les Troyens à CarthageLes TroyensLes Troyens is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid...
, 4 November 1863, Théâtre-Lyrique - MireilleMireille (opera)Mireille is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.-Composition history:...
, 19 March 1864, Théâtre-Lyrique (also revised 3 act version at Opéra-Comique on 10 November 1874) - L'alcade (Uzepy), 9 September 1864, Théâtre-Lyrique.
- Roméo et JulietteRoméo et JulietteRoméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, 27 April 1867, Théâtre-Lyrique (also Opéra-Comique premiere in January 1873) - La jolie fille de PerthLa jolie fille de PerthLa jolie fille de Perth is an opera in four acts by Georges Bizet , from a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jules Adenis, after the novel by Sir Walter Scott...
, 26 December 1867, Théâtre-Lyrique - DjamilehDjamilehDjamileh is an opéra comique in one act by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Louis Gallet, based on an oriental tale, Namouna, by Alfred de Musset.-Composition history:...
, 22 May 1872, Opéra-Comique - La princesse jauneLa princesse jauneLa princesse jaune is an opéra comique in one act and five scenes by composer Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Louis Gallet. The opera premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 12 June 1872....
, 12 June 1872, Opéra-Comique - Le roi l’a dit, 24 May 1873, Opéra-Comique
- CarmenCarmenCarmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, 3 March 1875, Opéra-Comique
Deloffre was on the podium for several anniversary performances in Paris: the 500th performance of La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
at the Opéra-Comique on 4 December 1871, the 1,000th performance Le Pré aux clercs
Le Pré aux clercs
Le pré aux clercs is an opéra comique in three acts by Ferdinand Hérold with a libretto by François-Antoine-Eugène de Planard based on Prosper Mérimée's Chronique du temps de Charles IX of 1829.-Performance history:...
by Hérold at the Opéra-Comique on 7 December 1871, the 1,000th performance of Le Chalet by Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
at the Opéra-Comique on 18 January 1873, and the 500th ('travesty') performance of Les Rendez-Vous Bourgeois by Nicolas Isouard on 20 March 1873.