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HALEVY, LUDOVIC (1834-1908)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 836 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HALEVY, LUDOVIC (1834-1908) , See also:French author, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 1st of See also:January 1834. His See also:father, See also:Leon Halevy (1802-1883), was a See also:clever and versatile writer, who tried almost every See also:branch of literature—See also:prose and See also:verse, See also:vaudeville, See also:drama, See also:history—without, however, achieving decisive success in any. His See also:uncle, J. F. Fromental E. Halevy (q.v.), was for many years associated with the See also:opera; hence the See also:double and See also:early connexion of Ludovic Halevy with the Parisian See also:stage. At the See also:age of six he might have been seen playing in that Foyer de la danse with which he was to make his readers so See also:familiar, and, when a boy of twelve, he would often, of a See also:Sunday See also:night, on his way back to the See also:College See also:Louis le See also:Grand, look in at the Odeon, where he had See also:free admittance, and see the first See also:act of the new See also:play. At eighteen he joined the ranks of the French See also:administration and occupied various posts, the last being that of secretaire-redacteur to the See also:Corps Legislatif. In that capacity he enjoyed the See also:special favour and friendship of the famous See also:duke of See also:Morny, then See also:president of that See also:assembly. In 1865 Ludovic Halevy's increasing popularity as an author enabled him to retire from the public service. Ten years earlier he had become acquainted with the musician See also:Offenbach, who was about to start a small See also:theatre of his own in the Champs Elysees, and he wrote a sort of See also:prologue, Entrez, messieurs, mesdames, for the opening night. Other little productions followed, See also:Ea-la-See also:clan being the most noticeable among them.

They were produced under the See also:

pseudonym of Jules Servieres. The name of Ludovic Halevy appeared for the first See also:time on the bills on the 1st of January 1856. Soon after-wards the unprecedented run of Orphee aux enfers, a musical See also:parody, written in collaboration with See also:Hector Cremieux, made his, name famous. In the See also:spring of 186o he was commissioned to write a play for the manager of the Varietes in See also:conjunction with another vaudevillist, See also:Lambert Thiboust. The latter having abruptly retired from the collaboration, Halevy was at a loss how to carry out the See also:contract, when on the steps of the theatre he met See also:Henri See also:Meilhac (1831-1897), then comparatively a stranger to him. He proposed to Meilhac the task rejected by Lambert Thiboust, and the proposal was immediately accepted. Thus began a connexion which was to last over twenty years, and which proved most fruitful both for the reputation of the two authors and the prosperity of the See also:minor Paris theatres. Their See also:joint See also:works may be divided into three classes: the operettes, the farces, the comedies. The operettes afforded excellent opportunities to a gifted musician for the display of his See also:peculiar See also:humour. They were broad and lively libels against the society of the time, but savoured strongly of the vices and follies they were supposed to satirize. Amongst the most celebrated works of the joint authors were La Belle Helene (1864), Barbe Bleue (1866), La Grande Duchesse de See also:Gerolstein (1867), and La Perichole (r868). After 1870 the See also:vogue of Parody rapidly declined.

The decadence became still more apparent when Offenbach was no longer at See also:

hand to assist the two authors with his See also:quaint musical See also:irony, and when they had to See also:deal with interpreters almost destitute of singing See also:powers. They wrote farces of the old type, consisting of complicated intrigues, with which they cleverly interwove the See also:representation of contemporary whims and social oddities. They generally failed when they attempted comedies of a more serious See also:character and tried to introduce a higher sort of emotion. A solitary exception must be made in the See also:case of Frou frou (1869), which, owing perhaps to the admirable See also:talent of Aimee Desclee, remains their unique succes de larmes. Meilhac and Halevy will be found at their best in See also:light sketches of Parisian See also:life, See also:Les Sonnettes, Le Roi Candaule, Madame attend See also:Monsieur, Toto chez See also:Tata. In that intimate association between the two men who had met so opportunely on the See also:perron See also:des varietes, it was often asked who was the leading partner. The question was not answered until the connexion was finally severed and they stood before the public, each to See also:answer for his own See also:work. It was then apparent that they had many gifts in See also:common. Both had wit, humour, observation of character. Meilhac had a ready See also:imagination, a See also:rich and whimsical See also:fancy; Halevy had See also:taste, refinement and pathos of a certain See also:kind. Not less clever than his brilliant comrade, he was more human. Of this he gave See also:evidence in two delightful books, Monsieur et Madame See also:Cardinal (1873) and Les Petites Cardinal, in which the lowest orders of the Parisian See also:middle class are faithfully described.

The pompous, pedantic, venomous Monsieur Cardinal will See also:

long survive as the true See also:image of sententious and self-glorifying immorality. M. Halevy's peculiar qualities are even more visible in the See also:simple and striking scenes of the Invasion, published soon after the conclusion of the Franco-See also:German See also:War, in Criquette (1883) and L'See also:Abbe Constantin (1882), two novels, the latter of which went through innumerable See also:editions. See also:Zola had presented to the public an almost exclusive See also:combination of See also:bad men and See also:women; in L'Abbe Constantin all are kind and See also:good, and the See also:change was eagerly welcomed by the public. Some enthusiasts still maintain that the Abbe will See also:rank permanently in literature by the See also:side of the equally chimerical See also:Vicar of See also:Wakefield. At any See also:rate, it opened for M. Ludovic Halevy the doors of the French See also:Academy, to which he was elected in 1884. Halevy remained an assiduous frequenter of the Academy, the See also:Conservatoire, the Comedie Francaise, and the Society of Dramatic Authors, but, when he died in Paris on the 8th of May 1908, he had produced practically nothing new for many years. His last See also:romance, Kari Kari, appeared in 1892. The Theatre of MM. Meilhac and Halevy was published in 8 vols. (1900-1902).

End of Article: HALEVY, LUDOVIC (1834-1908)

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