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Encyclopedia > Leo Delibes

(Clément Philibert) Leo Delibes (February 21, 1836January 16, 1891) was a French composer of Romantic music. He was born in St. Germain-du-Val, France.


After training under Adolphe Adam at the Paris Conservatoire, he worked as rehearsal accompanist at the Théâtre Lyrique and as an organist before coming to popular attention with his ballet Coppélia (1870); its title referred to a doll, depicted in the work, which comes to life. Other ballets include Sylvia (1876), and La Source (1866), which he wrote with Minkus.


Delibes also composed various operas, of which the last to be completed, the lush orientalizing Lakmé (1883), contains the famous coloratura showpiece the Bell Song ("Où va la jeune Indoue") and the Flower Duet, a barcarolle that British Airways commercials familiarized for non-operagoers in the 1990s. At the time, his operas impressed Tchaikovsky enough for the composer to rate Delibes more highly than Brahms. Judged purely as composers of operas, the modern critic would have to agree.


Delibes added the Divertissement to Adam's ballet Le Corsaire, wrote a Mass, a cantata on the theme of Algiers, operettas and occasional music for the theater, such as dances and antique airs for Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse, the play that Verdi turned into Rigoletto.


Delibes died in 1891, and was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.


  Results from FactBites:
 
Leo Delibes (512 words)
The composer was born Clément Philibert Léo Delibes in Saint-Germain du val, February 21, 1836.
Delibes' contributions of Act 2 and the first scene of Act 3 were considered the superior compositions of the work.
Delibes provided a generous amount of expressive character in his music - a new idea at the time - to produce music that is a descriptive tone poem.
Léo Delibes: Definition and Much More from Answers.com (1079 words)
Léo Delibes was the first notable composer of ballet to emerge after the death of Rameau, the art of ballet composition having suffered a period of neglect in the interim.
Delibes was the first to craft a full-length ballet score with the care and distinction already common among the best opera composers; not only could he produce buoyant, memorable tunes, but he delivered them in sparkling orchestrations.
Delibes was born in 1836, the son of a mailman and a musical mother, but also the grandson of an opera singer.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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