Ambroise Thomas

Ambroise Thomas, 1811–1896

(Charles Louis) Ambroise Thomas (Metz 5 August 1811 - Paris, 12 February 1896) was a French opera composer, best-known for his operas Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868, after Shakespeare) and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871-1896.

Biography

Early life and studies

His parents were music teachers and prepared him to become a musician. By age 10 he was already an excellent pianist and violinist. In 1828, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Jean-François Le Sueur while at the same time continuing his piano studies privately with the famous virtuoso pianist Frédéric Kalkbrenner. In 1832, his cantata Hermann et Ketty won the Conservatory's prestigious composition prize, the Grand Prix de Rome, which allowed him to travel to and study in that city for three years. He took with him a love for Mozart and Beethoven but once in Rome became an ardent admirer of the Italian cantilena and melodic tradition. It was during his Italian sojourn that he wrote all of his chamber music--a piano trio, a string quintet and a string quartet, all of which reflect his new style of writing.

Career

Ambroise Thomas wearing his medals from the Légion d'honneur.

His first opera, La Double Echelle (1837), was produced at the Opéra Comique and was a success, receiving 247 performances before it left the stage. Le Caïd (1849), his first undisputed triumph, glittered with Rossini-inspired score and achieved over 400 performances before the turn of the century. For the next quarter of a century Thomas's productivity was incessant, and most of his operatic works belonging to this period enjoyed a great, if ephemeral, popularity. They are hampered by their libretti, but a few of them are occasionally revived as historic curiosities or recorded as vehicles for bel canto singers: Le Songe d'une nuit d'été (1850; loosely adapted from Shakespeare), Psyché (1857). Some of his overtures appear on concert programs: the overture to Raymond (1851), for instance, receives the occasional revival.

To his theatrical successes, Thomas added administrative achievements. In 1856 he acquired a professorship at the Conservatoire, where he taught, among others, Massenet, one of the few French composers of the younger generation whose music interested him. He succeeded Auber as director of the Conservatoire in 1871, retaining his post until his death. Baffled by the musical unconventionalities of César Franck and certain other Conservatoire colleagues, he nevertheless was rather well liked as a man, even by those who found his output old-fashioned.

Success

With Mignon (premiered at the Opéra Comique in 1866), Thomas achieved his first great acclaim outside, as well as within, France. Goethe's tale had provided inspiration for a highly sentimentalized libretto; Marie Galli-Marié (1840–1905), it was said [1], "had modelled her conception of the part upon the well-known picture by Ary Scheffer" (illustration). Mignon was a success all over Europe, to audiences that had embraced Charles Gounod's indirectly Goethe-inspired sentimental Faust (1859); and in Paris Mignon received more than a thousand performances by 1894, thereby becoming one of the most successful operas in French history [2]. It turns up occasionally today, more often in the form of extracts for concert or in recordings than in complete stagings. One of its arias, "Connais-tu le pays", was for generations among the most famous operatic excerpts by any composer.

Thomas turned to Shakespeare again for his Hamlet (Paris Opera, 1868), with a libretto by the seasoned team of Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. This opera has a strong, dramatic libretto although it closes with a traditional (and somewhat surprising) happy ending. It enjoyed a long vogue, and like Mignon it continues to have a certain following.

His last opera, Françoise de Rimini (Paris Opéra, 1882) based on a passage from Dante's Inferno, failed to stay in the repertoire. Seven years later La Tempête, a ballet (and yet another treatment of a Shakespeare play), was produced at the Opéra, again with very little effect.

List of works and premieres

Mignon, by Ary Scheffer, 1836 (Dordrechts Museum)

(Each composition is an opéra comique, unless noted otherwise)

• La double échelle, libretto by Eugène de Planard, 23 August 1837
• Le perruquier de la régence, 30 March 1838
• La gipsy, second act ballet at the Opéra de Paris, 1839
• Le panier fleuri, 6 May 1839
• Carline, 24 February 1840
• Le comte de Carmagnola, opera in two acts, libretto by Eugène Scribe, The first performance was at the Opéra de Paris on 19 April 1841
• Le guerillero, opera in 2 acts, libretto by T. Anne, 22 June 1842
• Angélique et Médor, 10 May 1843
• Mina, ou Le ménage à trois, 10 October 1843
• Le caïd, libretto by T.M.F. Savage, 3 January 1849
• Le songe d'une nuit d'été, 20 April 1850
• Raymond, ou Le secret de la reine, 5 June 1851
• La Tonelli, 30 March 1853
• La cour de Célimène, 11 April 1855
• Psyché, 26 January 1857
• Le carnaval de Venise, 9 December 1857
• Gille et Gillotin, opera in one act, 22 April 1874 (Revision of Gillotin et son père, 1859, unperformed.)
• Le roman d'Elvire, 4 February 1860
• Mignon, opera in three acts, libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. The first performance was at the Opéra Comique, Paris, on 17 November 1866.
• Hamlet, opera in five acts, libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, The first performance was at the Opéra de Paris on 9 March 1868
• Françoise de Rimini, opera in five acts, libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier, The first performance was at the Opéra de Paris on 14 April 1882
• La tempête, ballet, ("The Tempest", based on Shakespeare), 1889

References

• Composers: (Charles Louis) Ambroise Thomas
• Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911: "C.L.A. Thomas" An admiring review, reflecting popular musical taste in 1911.
• Some of the material in the above article appears on the website of Edition Silvertrust but permission to copy, distribute and alter has been given to Wikipedia under the terms of the GNU License in accordance with the GDFL.

External links

• Ambroise Thomas String Quartet in e minor Soundbites & short biography.
• Free scores by Ambroise Thomas in the International Music Score Library Project
•   "Charles L.A. Thomas". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 

Further reading

• Georges Masson, 1996. Ambroise Thomas (Metz: Editions Serpentoise)