Francis Lopez

Francis Lopez (whose true name is Francisco Lopez) born with Montbeliard (Doubs) the June 15th 1916 and deceased with Paris the January 5th 1995, is a type-setter of French music.

1916-1939: childhood and youth

  • It is by chance, because of the war, that Francis Lopez was born in Montbeliard. In fact it is a authentic Basque from his origins, and because of its years of childhood and adolescence. The family of its father, Francisco Lopez (born with the Peru, with Lima in 1889, but which is established in France, with Hendaye, to follow the occupation of dentist) had emigrated in Peru like many Basques at the XIXe century. His/her mother, Berta-Ena Jambreau, had been born it also in South America, with Buenos-Ayres. Basque girl originating in Hendaye, it turned over with her family in this city after the death of her father. It is there that it met her husband-to-be. Having lost his/her father at the five years age, Francis Lopez, after having followed studies to the college of Pau, " monte" in Paris to undertake studies of medicine there in order to become dentist like his father. Good pianist amateur, it plays the evening in cabarets or bars of the Latin Quarter in order to pay his studies partly, but without considering a musical career.

1939-1945: beginnings in the song

  • having chosen for French nationality (it had been born in France, but parents born abroad) Francis Lopez is mobilized in September 1939, at the beginning of the war, and it is at the time of the preparation of the festival of Christmas of its unit that it composes his first songs. Wounded in 1940 and life income civil, it opens a cabinet of dental surgeon in Paris, while continuing to compose each evening. In the Basque community of the capital, Francis Lopez becomes acquainted with the singer André Dassary, who works with the arranger and leader Raymond Legrand. In 1942, it obtains a considerable success with four songs interpreted by the orchestra Raymond Legrand: the Rat of the cities and the rat of the fields , Perrette , Jim and wild Refrain , this last title obtaining the Grand Prix of the disc soon. From this moment, Francis Lopez connects success on success with prestigious interpreters like Lucienne Delyle, Léo Marjane, Maurice Chevalier, Tino Rossi, but also Georges Guétary then beginning in the variety, with the success of which it contributes largely with Caballero , Robin of Wood , has Honolulu , songs which are then on all the lips. It is also tested with the song recital with songs of its composition of which it writes the words on the occasion ( My shopgirl , Heureux like a king ), and it takes even for some time the artistic director of the cabaret the Parnassus .

1945-1975: glory

  • At the end of 1945, Francis Lopez, already recognized as type-setter of songs to success, is brought to write in a few weeks its first Opérette, the Beautiful one of Cadiz , on a booklet of Raymond Vincy. The high-speed motorboat is an almost unknown singer, Luis Mariano. This spectacle, assembled with few means, is created with the Montparnasse Casino on December 22nd, 1945. About fifty representations were envisaged: the part will run during almost two years. the Beautiful one of Cadiz mark the beginning of the collaboration of the trio formed by Raymond Vincy, Francis Lopez and Luis Mariano, which will dominate the operetta during more than twenty years and will accumulate successes. After the triumph of its first operetta, Francis Lopez launches out in the composition of a more ambitious work musicalement: Andalusia , created in Lyric Gaîté on October 25th, 1947, with still Shine Mariano in the high-speed motorboat.
  • the reputation of Francis Lopez from now on being firmly established, it produces operetta on operetta, booklets of Raymond Vincy (generally only, but sometimes in collaboration), at the average rate/rhythm of one per annum, the ones concerning the musical comedy ( Four days in Paris , 1948; Mr Burgundy , 1949), others being works with large spectacle which then carry this kind to its apogee ( For Don Carlos , in 1950, with Georges Guétary; the Singer of Mexico City , in 1951, with Shine Mariano). With the Singer of Mexico City created to the Theater of Châtelet (just like For Gift Carlos ), Francis Lopez, then 35 years old, is with the apogee of his glory. During ten years, it connects the triumphs: the Flowered Road with the ABC (1952), with Georges Guétary, Bourvil and Annie Cordy; In Jamaica at the Porte-Saint-Martin (1954), with Jeanne Sourza and Christian Selva; the Golden Fleece , in Châtelet (1954), with Andre Dassary; the Mediterranean , still with Châtelet (1955), first operetta interpreted by Tino Rossi; Head of Linnet to the ABC (1957), with Annie Cordy and Jean Richard.
  • years 1960 are less brilliant. The fashion is from now on with the “Yéyé”, more rhythmic than melody, which is essential everywhere in the field of the variety. Francis Lopez makes some concessions with the novel mode, by introducing the “Twist” into its new operettas ( Visa for the love , with Luis Mariano and Annie Cordy, in 1961, and especially the Time of the guitars , written in 1963 for Tino Rossi, where the influence of the new rates/rhythms is even more sensitive, and where it is called upon a singer of the new generation, (Josy Andrieu). The operetta with large spectacle is not therefore abandoned. Maurice Lamy, successor of Maurice Lehmann with the head of Châtelet orders the Prince of Madrid , created in March 1967 with Luis Mariano in the high-speed motorboat and which will run during two years. In May 1968, disappears Raymond Vincy, the collaborator of so much of success. For the new spectacle having to be created in Châtelet in December 1969, the Caravel of Gold , it is necessary to call upon Jean Valmy for the booklet and in Jacques Plante for the words. Patient, Luis Mariano must give up the scene after a few weeks of representations. He dies on July 14th, 1970 in Paris. Trio having made the glory of the French operetta in the years 1950 (Francis Lopez, Raymond Vincy and Luis Mariano) the type-setter remains the only survivor. Its success is however not contradicted. In province, Rudy Hirigoyen makes triumph Viva Napoli ! in 1969, before a crowned resumption of success in Paris, with the Theater Mogador, in September 1970.

1970-1994: difficulties

  • With the beginning of the year 1970, the operetta is indisputably in crisis, while the Rock is essential and that fashion, at the young generations, is with the American Musical comedy. TheLyric one closed, Mogador seeks a new breath, and Châtelet is in bankruptcy after the death of Marcel Lamy. To avoid his closing, one calls upon Francis Lopez, which takes the artistic director of it. In the urgency, it decides to assemble there Gipsy , an operetta created in Lille in December 1971, for lack of Parisian room, with in the high-speed motorboat a beginner, Jose Todaro. From February 1972, the part gains a triumph each evening in Châtelet (it will be represented there more than 600 times). the Three musketeers , “operetta-western” with the booklet very freely adapted work of Alexandre Dumas succeeds in February 1974 to him, with the tenor Mario Brunini, who will die shortly after. the Volga , also created in Châtelet in November 1976 with Jose Todaro and Maria Candido will be the last operetta with large spectacle of Francis Lopez. It will run for nineteen months. Meanwhile, in dissension with the concessionary company of Châtelet, Francis Lopez had given up the direction of the theater. In 1979, the Town of Paris decides to take again the direct use of it and, while returning to its vocation of the XIXe century under the name of musical Théâtre of Paris, to make some before a a whole concert hall.
  • As the Mogador Theater followed a comparable fate, Francis Lopez cannot conceive operetta with large spectacle any more. It must be satisfied with modest rooms (Rebirth, Elysium-Montmartre, Eldorado), without orchestra pit. From now on, the singers are accompanied more only by some instruments, dominated by a synthetizer. One will be satisfied even sometimes with a magnetic band… One is far from the rich person orchestrations of a Jacques-Henry Rys or a Paul Bonneau. With small scenes without machinery, the setting in scene is more reduced. However Francis Lopez does not give up: the catalog of its works, of 1979 to 1994, account a score of titles (at the average rate/rhythm of an assembled operetta each year) but they are nothing any more but the echo of its last glory. It is difficult besides to know which is the exact share of Francis Lopez in the musical partition of the majority of the productions of the last period of its career, of many “additional airs” writings by his Anja wife, then by her Rodrigo son, being regularly introduced into the operettas which it signs in the years 1980. For the first roles of its last works, Francis Lopez calls either upon artists having, to the beautiful days of the years 1950, leads its more famous productions to success, but having inevitably aged (Georges Guétary, Rudy Hirigoyen, Maria Candido, Josy Andrieu), or with new talents of which none manages to be essential truly (Jose Villamor, Ricardo Garcia, Tony Gama, Richard Finell, and, in the singers, Chris Keller).
Francis Lopez dies in Paris on January 5th, 1995, leaving a considerable work: about fifty operettas, a thousand of songs and music of about fifty films.

  • the often disappointing production of the last years of the career of Francis Lopez should not make forget qualities of a musician who was, with Vincent Scotto, one of largest the Mélodistes of the XXe century, whose refrains, being essential immediately on the ear, were a planetary success during about fifteen years. If Paris forsakes Francis Lopez nowadays (the resumption of the Chanteur of Mexico City in 2006 was not a great success), the province remains to him faithful. Each year, are assembled in a city or in another, the Beautiful one of Cadiz , Andalusia , Four days with Paris or some other great operetta of a type-setter who, been sulky by the intellectual elites of his time, remains one of the most popular musicians of the XXe century.

Sources

  • Francis Lopez, Flamenco. Glory and the tears , Paris, Presses of the City, 1987 (autobiographical work).
  • Rodrigo Lopez, Daniel Ringold (with the participation of Philippe Guiboust), Francis Lopez and its great operettas , s.l., Editions of the Rock, 1996 (Rodrigo Lopez is the only son of Francis Lopez, and Daniel Ringold the lyric writer of the airs of its last operettas).
  • " File Francis Lopez" , in Operetta , n° 95, April 15th - July 15th, 1995.
  • Syvie February, " Francis Lopez (1916-1995) " , in Encyclopedia universalis , 1996.
  • Articles obituary in various newspapers and re-examined January 1995.

Operettas

See too

Random links:Daniel Ferro | Tocane-Saint-rough | Sculpture of the Rebirth | Department of Güer Aike | Pierrick Sorin | Mauzac_(raisin)