Ernest Reyer, the adopted name of Louis Étienne Ernest Rey, was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 opera composer and music critic (December 1, 1823 – January 15, 1909).

Biography

Ernest Reyer was born in Marseilles. His father, a notary

Notary

A notary is a lawyer or person with legal training who is licensed by the state to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents...

, did not want his son to take up a career in music. However, he did not actively block his son's ambitions and allowed him to attend classes at the Conservatoire from age six to sixteen. In 1839, when he was 16 years old, Ernest traveled to north Africa to work under his brother-in-law, head of accounting for the Treasury Department in Algeria

French Algeria

French Algeria lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France, much like Corsica and Réunion are to this day. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest...

. The job was not a good fit with Reyer's nonchalant and undisciplined temperament. From administrative documents, it is apparent that Reyer wrote innumerable youthful essays and stories, and original dance pieces. Some of his early compositions achieved local notoriety and received favorable comments in the Algerian press, including a Mass performed at the cathedral that was performed for the arrival of the Duke of Aumale in 1847.

Reyer returned to 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...

 during the events 1848. During this period, he was introduced to various eminent artists, including Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...

 and Théophile Gautier

Théophile Gautier

Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....

. Southern France and Provence

Provence

Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

 held its allure, and Reyer returned there to socialize with local people with whom he loved to play dominoes

Dominoes

Dominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...

 while smoking a pipe. He said that his pipe was his best source of inspiration.

His aunt, Louise Farrenc

Louise Farrenc

Louise Farrenc was a French composer, virtuosa pianist and teacher. Born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in Paris, she was the daughter of Jacques-Edme Dumont, a successful sculptor, and sister to Auguste Dumont.-Biography:...

, professor of piano at the Conservatoire and a talented composer in her own right, directed Reyer's early musical studies. In 1850, he composed a symphonic ode with choirs to words by Gautier; this was conducted by Sélam at the Théatre Italien. Four years later, in 1854, he composed music for an opera in one act, Maître Wolfram ("Master Wolfram"), whose libretto was by Joseph Méry

Joseph Méry

Joseph Méry was a French writer.Méry was born at Marseille. An ardent romanticist, he collaborated with Auguste Barthélemy in many of his satires and wrote a great number of stories, now forgotten...

. Hearing a performance of this work at the Opéra Comique

Opera Comique

The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street and Holywell Street with entrances on the East Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway...

, 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...

 recognized Reyer's talent. He said that Reyer's output had "nothing in common with the somewhat affected, somewhat dilapidated approach the Paris muse [...]. His melodies are natural [...]. There's heart and imagination there."

Gradually, some fame came Reyer's way. In 1857, the critic Charles Monselet wrote: "Is this a musician who writes, or a writer who makes music? I do not know, but I am hopeful that this spirited boy will make his way to singing and writing." Admittedly, Reyer was not (yet) unanimously praised and some critics pointed-out that his orchestration had not achieved a level of musical genius.

The following year he composed a ballet, Sacountalâ, with a story, once again, by Gautier. The ballet was given twenty-four performances through to 1860. (Sacountalâ is also the title of a famous overture by Karl Goldmark

Karl Goldmark

Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...

 and of an opera by Franco Alfano

Franco Alfano

Franco Alfano was an Italian composer and pianist. Best known today for his opera Risurrezione and above all for having completed Puccini's opera Turandot in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime.- Biography :He was born in Posillipo, Naples...

.)

In 1861, Reyer composed an opéra-comique in three acts and six scenes, La statue

La statue

La statue is an opera in three acts and five tableaux by Ernest Reyer to the libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on tales from One Thousand and One Nights and La statue merveilleuse, an 1810 carnival play by Alain-René Lesage and Jacques-Philippe d'Orneval.Although in its story opera...

("The Statue"), whose plot was inspired by "One Thousand and One Nights" (also knowns as: "Arabian Nights") with a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Michel Carré

Michel Carré

Michel Carré was a prolific French librettist.He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. His libretto for Mirette was never performed in France but was later performed in English adaptation in...

 and Jules Barbier

Jules Barbier

Paul Jules Barbier was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré...

. It was premiered in 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...

 in Paris on April 11, 1861. In less than two years, La statue achieved sixty performances, an impressive figure for the period.

Reyer's work was finally universally recognized in 1862, and the composer from Marseilles became a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. The same year, he composed Érostrate, an opera in two acts, which was played in August 1862 in Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...

, under the auspices of great families in Europe, which earned him the distinction of receiving the Red Eagle from the hands of the Queen of Prussia.

Little by little, however, his reputation began to decline. The same Érostate failed completely in Paris and was staged for only three performances, which deprived the work of a possible production at the Opéra

Paris Opera

The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...

.

The best-known of his five operas is Sigurd

Sigurd (opera)

Sigurd is an opera in four acts and nine scenes by the French composer Ernest Reyer on a libretto by Camille du Locle and Alfred Blau. Like Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, the story is based on the Niebelungenlied and the Eddas, with some crucial differences from the better known Wagnerian version...

(1884); it was quite popular in France during its initial production there (it had its premiere in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 at the Théâtre de La Monnaie

La Monnaie

Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....

 in January 1884), and is sometimes (although rarely) revived. Sigurd is based on the Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n legends of the Edda

Edda

The term Edda applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age...

 Volsunga saga

Volsunga saga

The Völsungasaga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan . It is largely based on epic poetry...

 (Nibelungenlied

Nibelungenlied

The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....

), the same source which Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

 drew upon for the libretto for his Ring cycle. The music of Sigurd, however, is quite unlike the music of Wagner. While Reyer admired Wagner, he developed his music more along the lines of his mentor, 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...

. Listening to Sigurd, one cannot help but hear echoes of Les Troyens

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...

or Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini (opera)

Benvenuto Cellini is an opera in two acts with music by Hector Berlioz and libretto by Léon de Wailly and Henri Auguste Barbier. It was the first of Berlioz's operas. The story is loosely based on the memoirs of the Florentine sculptor Benvenuto Cellini. The opera is technically very challenging...

, embued with the same heroic musical posture.

Reyer's last opera was Salammbô

Salammbô (opera)

Salammbô is an opera in five acts composed by Ernest Reyer to a French libretto by Camille du Locle. It is based on the novel Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert . The opera was first performed at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels on 10 February 1890...

(1890), based on the novel

Salammbô (novel)

Salammbô is a historical novel by Gustave Flaubert. It is set in Carthage during the third century BCE, immediately before and during the Mercenary Revolt which took place shortly after the First Punic War. Flaubert's main source was Book I of Polybius's Histories...

 by Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...

, which achieved 46 performances from May to December 1892. The work had been composed several years earlier but had been met with initial resistance by administrators, as had Sigurd. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 in 1890, and at the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen.

Unable to live on the proceeds from his operas, Reyer succeeded Berlioz as music critic at the Journal des débats

Journal des Débats

The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...

. He also worked as the librarian at the Académie de musique.

Other compositions by Reyer include a symphonic ode entitled Le sélam for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus & orchestra ...

Reyer died in Le Lavandou

Le Lavandou

Le Lavandou is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It derives its name either from the flower lavender that is prevalent in the area, or more prosaicly from the local form of the Occitan name for lavoir, lavandor .The village is where...

, in the south of France, ~80 km east of Marseilles.

Selected compositions

• Chœur des buveurs et chœurs des assiégés, ca. 1848.
• Le sélam, 1850.
• Maître Wolfram, 1-act Opéra Comique, 1854.
• Sacountalâ, ballet 1858.
• Chant des paysans (from Les Volontaires de 1814 by V. Séjour), 1861.
• La statue
  La statue
  La statue is an opera in three acts and five tableaux by Ernest Reyer to the libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on tales from One Thousand and One Nights and La statue merveilleuse, an 1810 carnival play by Alain-René Lesage and Jacques-Philippe d'Orneval.Although in its story opera...
  
  , 1861.
• Erostrate, 1862.
• L'hymne du Rhin, words by Méry, 1865.
• La Madeleine au désert, poems by Ed. Blau, 1874.
• Marche tzigane.
• Recueil de mélodies et de fragments d'opéras.
• Sigurd
  Sigurd (opera)
  Sigurd is an opera in four acts and nine scenes by the French composer Ernest Reyer on a libretto by Camille du Locle and Alfred Blau. Like Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, the story is based on the Niebelungenlied and the Eddas, with some crucial differences from the better known Wagnerian version...
  
  , 1884.
• Salammbô
  Salammbô (opera)
  Salammbô is an opera in five acts composed by Ernest Reyer to a French libretto by Camille du Locle. It is based on the novel Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert . The opera was first performed at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels on 10 February 1890...
  
  , 1890.
• Tristesse, poems by Ed. Blau, 1884.
• L'homme, poems by G. Boyer, 1892.
• Trois sonnets, poems by C. du Locle.

Selected writings in French

• Notes de musiques, Charpentier, 1875.
• Notice sur Félicien David, Académie des Beaux-Arts, 17 November 1877.
• Berlioz, Revue des Revues, 1 January 1894.
• Quarante ans de musique (1857-1899), posthumus publication with préface and notes by Henriot, Calmann-Lévy, 1910, in-8°.

Sources

• G. Kordes, Ernest Reyer : progressiste ou conservateur ? Son esthétique de l'opéra réalisée dans Sigurd : Figures d'époque (Ernest Reyer : progressist or conservative? His aesthetics of opera in Sigurd : Figures of the epoch), Bull. de la société Th.-Gautier, n°15, 1993.
• Henri de Curzon, « Ernest Reyer, sa vie et ses œuvres », Revue de musicologie, 1924.
• C. E. Curinier, Dictionnaire national des contemporains, 1899
• Charles Monselet, La Lorgnette littéraire : dictionnaire des grands et des petits auteurs de mon temps, éd. Auguste Poulet-Malassis and Eugène de Broise, 1857, p. 188.

External links