Louis Deffès

Louis Deffès, 1890

Piano by Louis Deffes in the Musée du Vieux Toulouse

Pierre-Louis Deffès (born July 25, 1819 in Toulouse ; † May 28, 1900 there ) was a French composer and music teacher.

Deffès was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1839 , where he studied piano with Théodore Mozin , harmony with François Bazin , counterpoint and fugue with Auguste Barbereau and composition with Jacques Fromental Halévy and Henri Montan Berton . In 1844 he composed La Toulousaine . The piece gained great popularity and became the anthem of his hometown. In 1847 he received second prize at the Concours de Chants Historiques for his composition Les Charmes de la Paix , and in the same year the Grand Prix de Rome for the cantata L'Ange et Tobie based on a poem by Léon Halévy .

Birthplace of Louis Deffes in Toulouse .

During his stay in Rome, which was associated with the award, he composed his mass solennelle , which was premiered in 1850. In 1857 a performance followed with 500 participants at the Notre Dame de Paris church . In 1855 L'Anneau d'argent , the first of his twenty consistently successful operas, premiered at the Opéra-Comique .

The Franco-German war interrupted the series of performances of his operas, and compositions such as the Marche funèbre , the Motet Gaude floris , a mass brève à trois voix and the song La Phrygienne for choir and piano were created.

Deffès returned to the opera stage in 1877 with Le Trompette de Chamboran . His symphonic overture Un Triomphe à Rome was performed at the 1878 World's Fair . A new Mass by Deffès was performed at the Saint-Etienne Cathedral in Toulouse in 1879 . In 1883 he succeeded Paul Mériel as head of the Conservatoire de Toulouse . He held the position until his death, and was succeeded by Bernard Crocé-Spinelli .

Deffès had been a member of the Association des Artistes Musiciens since it was founded in 1843 and belonged to its central committee, he was also a founding member of the Société des Compositeurs de musique (1863). In 1884 he became a corresponding member of the composition section of the Académie des Beaux-Arts . He was awarded a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

Works

• Virginie , opera fragment, 1848
• L'Anneau d'argent , comic opera in one act (Libretto: Jules Barbier , Léon Battu ), WP 1855
• La Clef des champs , comic opera in one act (Libretto: Henri Boisseaux ), premier 1857
• Broscovano , comic opera in two acts (libretto: Eugène Scribe , Henri Boisseaux), premiered in 1859
• Les Violons du Roi , comic opera in three acts, premiered in 1859
• Le Café du roi , comic opera in one act (Libretto: Henri Meilhac ), premiere 1861
• Les Bourguignonnes , comic opera in one act (Libretto: Henri Meilhac), premier 1862
• Une Boîte à surprise , comic opera in one act (Libretto: AP Deforges , Laurencin ), WP 1864
• Passé Minuit , Vaudeville in one act (Libretto: Lockroy , Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois ), WP 1864
• Valse et menuet , comic opera (Libretto: Jules Adenis , Joseph Méry ), premiere 1865
• Le Fantôme du Rhin , comic opera in one act (libretto: Jules Adenis, Joseph Méry), premiered in 1866
• La Comédie en voyage , comic opera in one act (libretto: Jules Adenis, Joseph Méry), WP 1867
• Riquet à la Houppe (Libretto: Jean Duboys , Alfred Blan ), 1868
• Les Croqueuses de pommes Operetta in five acts (Libretto: Eugène Grangé , Emile Abraham ), premiered in 1868
• Petite Bonhomme vit encore , UA 1868
• La Trompette de Chamboran , comic opera (Libretto: Adolphe de Leuven , Jules Adenis ), premiered in 1877
• Cigale et Bourdon , operetta in one act, premiered in 1878
• Un Triomphe à Rome , symphonic overture, WP 1878
• Les Noces de Fernande , comic opera (Libretto: Victorien Sardou , Émile de Najac ), WP 1878
• Jessica ( Le Marchand de Venise , Shylock or La Fille de Shylock ), opera in five acts (libretto by Jules Adenis based on Shakespeare ), premiered in 1898