Magia operei - Rafinamentul Operei Franceze (2006) cd4 CasTaN

Georges Bizet (French: [ʒɔʁʒ bizɛ]; 25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875), registered at
birth as Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer of the romantic era.
Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved
few successes before his final work, Carmen, which has become one of the most
popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertoire.

Charles-François Gounod (French: [ʃaʁl fʁɑ̃swa ɡuno]; 17 June 1818 – 17 October or
18 October 1893) was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria, based on a
work by Bach, as well as his opera Faust. Another opera by Gounod, occasionally
still performed, is Roméo et Juliette.

Gounod died at Saint-Cloud in 1893, after a final revision of his twelve operas.
His funeral took place ten days later at the Church of the Madeleine, with the
assistance of Camille Saint-Saëns to the organ and Gabriel Fauré conducting.
He was buried in Paris, at the Montparnasse Cemetery.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (French: [maʁk ɑ̃.twan ʃaʁ.pɑ̃.tje]; 1643 – 24 February 1704)
was a French composer of the Baroque era.

Exceptionally prolific and versatile, Charpentier produced compositions of the highest
quality in several genres. His mastery in writing sacred vocal music, above all, was
recognized and hailed by his contemporaries.

Any family relationship between him and Gustave Charpentier, the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth century French opera composer, is highly unlikely.

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (French: [ʃaʁl kamij sɛ̃sɑ̃s]; 9 October 1835 – 16 December
1921), also known by his nom de plume, Sannois, was a French composer, organist,
conductor, and pianist of the Romantic era. He is known especially for The Carnival of
the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah (Opera), Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello
Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony No. 3
(Organ Symphony).

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (French: [ʒyl emil fʁedeʁik masnɛ]; 12 May 1842 – 13
August 1912) was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were
very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the
greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of
fashion, and many of his operas fell into almost total oblivion. Apart from Manon
and Werther, his works were rarely performed. However, since the mid-1970s, many
operas of his such as Thaïs and Esclarmonde have undergone periodic revivals.

Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a German-born French composer,
cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100
operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was
a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann
Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during
the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales
of Hoffman remains part of the standard opera repertory.

Born in Cologne, the son of a synagogue cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent.
At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found
academic study unfulfilling and left after a year. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living
as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was
to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris's
Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, in 1855 he leased a small theatre
in the Champs-Élysées. There he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of
which became popular.
In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers ("Orpheus in
the Underworld"), which was exceptionally well received and has remained one of his most
played works. During the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as
more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène (1864), La vie
parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). The
risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces,
together with Offenbach's facility for melody, made them internationally known, and
translated versions were successful in Vienna, London and elsewhere in Europe.

Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III; the emperor and
his court were genially satirised in many of Offenbach's operettas. Napoleon III personally
granted him French citizenship and the Légion d'Honneur. With the outbreak of the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his
imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London,
however. He re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his
earlier favourites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U.S. tour. In his last
years he strove to finish The Tales of Hoffmann, but died before the premiere of the opera,
which has entered the standard repertory in versions completed or edited by other musicians.