Ambroise Thomas

Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas is a Compositeur French, famous at the 19th century for his operas, in particular celebrates it Mignon , born with Metz the August 5th 1811 and died in Paris the February 12th 1896.

Biography

Child prodigy, wire of a violonist of Metz, Jean-Baptist-Martin Thomas, and from a professional singer, Ambroise Thomas learns the music with his father at the same time as the alphabet, practitioner the piano and the violin. His/her father dies in 1823, leaving the family without resources. His wife settles in Paris in 1827 and, the following year, Ambroise integrates the conservatory of Paris, where he is in particular the pupil of Zimmermann, Doulen, Lesueur for the composition, and Kalkbrenner for the class of piano. He gains the first price of piano in 1829, the first price of harmony in 1830 and, after a first unfruitful attempt in 1831, the Prix of Rome in 1832 with the cantata Hermann and Ketty .

During its stay in Italy with the Villa Médicis, it composes primarily of the chamber music and binds with Hippolyte Flandrin, which makes his portrait and Ingres, then director of the Academy. He travels then to Vienna, Munich and Leipzig. It was then, according to the memories of Leon Escudier, “ an young man with the hurled size, the expressive aspect which clarified of the blue eyes of an attractive softness, with the step nonchalante, the elegant and polished manners. This slender young man with the flexible and penetrating voice, was not made too much request when one urged it to put oneself at the piano. He played extremely well of this instrument, not with the manner of the virtuosos in concert in search of cheers and having concern only one noisy sonority; but as a poet who can speak in the middle and find fine colors to paint his transport and his dreams. ”

On its return to Paris in 1837, Thomas launches out in the composition of operas, which all will be played. So some of the operas of this period, written in a light and mélodieux style, have success, any is not supported durably with the repertory: the Stepladder (1837), which is worth to him the compliments of Hector Berlioz; Caïd (1849), brilliant operetta which gains a great success; the one Night Dream of Summer (1850), dramatic imagination good accommodated, where one meets Falstaff and Shakespeare itself but not Titania nor Obéron; Raymond (1851), whose opening remained popular, the Novel of Elvire , etc Thanks to the success of the Caïd , Ambroise Thomas is triumphantly elected with the Académie of the Art schools in 1851, crushing Berlioz which does not obtain only one vote.

It to last around fifty when its Nice opera (1866), over a booklet drawn from the novel of Goethe, Wilhelm Meister ( Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre ), gains a considerable success after hesitant beginnings. Consequently, Ambroise Thomas, whose fame had hitherto remained relatively restricted, reaches the statute of major type-setter. In 1894, Mignon had been represented more 1 000 times at only the Op3era Comique and had been presented on all the scenes of Europe.

Its following opera, Hamlet (1868), according to the tragedy of Shakespeare, will bring an international repute to him. The music of Thomas is obviously hardly adapted to the subject, but work contains some of its best pieces, in particular the scene of the esplanade, all the role of Ophélie, and a ballet particularly shining. The interpretation of Jean-Baptiste Faure and Christine Nilsson contibue with the success of the work and the type-setter are the first musician to be received, of the hands of Napoleon III, the tie of commander of the Légion of honor.

Thomas had become professor of composition to the Academy of Paris in 1856, taking the succession of Adolphe Adam and in particular counting Massenet, Edouard Colonne, Theodore Dubois, Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, Albert Lavignac, Francis Thomé among his many pupils. Died of Spirit Auber in 1871, Thomas succeeds to him the head of the Academy. It then ceases composing except for Francoise de Rimini (1874), which does not succeed, and of the ballet the Storm (1889), always according to Shakespeare, given to the Opéra of Paris. During its directorate, he is opposed to the Germanic influences. If it allots the class of organ to César Franck in 1872, it battles against the nomination of Gabriel Fauré, which was named with the Academy only after the death of Thomas in 1896.

Apart from his operas, Ambroise Thomas composed some parts of sacred music as well as instrumental music and symphonic. In 1887, it chaired the commission placed near the Minister for the War which was charged to establish an official version of the Marseillaise . The version thus arranged was played in the official ceremonies until in 1974.

“ There are two species of music, the good one and the bad one. And then it there with the music of Ambroise Thomas ”, said Emmanuel Chabrier: one can say indeed that the music of Ambroise Thomas is neither good nor bad; light, easy, mélodieuse, before the middle-class public of the was done everything to like it Second Empire. The type-setter, was written Alfred Bruneau, “ the last one representing long generation of fast producers who, during one half-century, fed with an untiring and perhaps excessive fruitfulness our opera houses. Thrown in the militant life at the easy time of Auber and the Adolphe Adam, the soft cantor of Nice, who was not an innovator, had of another ambition only to follow the way shown by the fashion. ”

Lyric works

the stepladder , Op3era Comique, 1837
the Wig maker of Regency , 1838
Gipsy , 1839
the count de Carmagnola , 1842
Angelica and Médor , 1843
Caïd , 1849
the one night Dream of summer , 1850
Raymond , 1851
Psyché , 1857
the Novel of Elvire , 1860 Nice
, lyric tragedy in 3 acts and 5 tables, booklet of Michel Square and Jules Barber, created with the Op3era Comique on November 17th 1866
Hamlet , opera in 5 acts, booklet of Square Michel and Jules Barber, created with the Opera of Paris on March 9th 1868
Francoise de Rimini , Opera of Paris, 1874
the Storm , ballet, 1889

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