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THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-...

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 866 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMAS, See also:CHARLES See also:LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896) , See also:French musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Metz on the 5th of See also:August 1811. He studied at the See also:Paris See also:Conservatoire, and won the See also:Grand Prix de See also:Rome in 1832. Five years later (in 1837) his first See also:opera, La See also:Double echelle, was produced at the Opera Comique. For the next five-and-twenty years Thomas's productivity was incessant, and most of his operatic See also:works belonging to this See also:period enjoyed an ephemeral popularity. A few of these are still occasionally heard on the See also:continent, such as Le Caid (1849), Le Songe d'une nuit d'ete (1850), See also:Psyche (1857). The See also:overture to See also:Raymond (1851) has remained popular. So far the composer's operatic career had not been marked by any overwhelming success. He occupied a See also:place among the recognized purveyors of operas in the French See also:capital, but could scarcely claim to having achieved See also:European renown. The See also:production of See also:Mignon at the Opera Comique in 1866, however, at once raised Ambroise Thomas to the position of one of the foremost French composers. See also:Goethe's touching See also:tale had very happily inspired the musician; Mme Galli See also:Marie, the See also:original interpreter of the See also:title-role, had modelled her conception of the See also:part upon the well-known picture by Ary See also:Scheffer, and Mignon at once took the See also:fancy of the public, its success being repeated all over the continent. It has since remained one of the most popular operas belonging to the second See also:half of the 19th See also:century. Thomas now attempted to turn See also:Shakespeare's See also:Hamlet to operatic See also:account.

His opera of that name was produced with success at the Paris Opera in r868, where it enjoyed a See also:

long See also:vogue. If the See also:music is scarcely adequate to the subject, it nevertheless contains some of the composer's best See also:work. The See also:scene of the esplanade is genuinely dramatic, the part of Ophelia is poetically conceived, and the See also:ballet music is very brilliant. Ambroise Thomas's last opera, Fran4oise de See also:Rimini, was given at the Opera in 1882, but has not maintained itself in the repertoire. Seven years later La See also:Temple, a ballet founded on Shakespeare's See also:play, was produced at the same See also:theatre. Ambroise Thomas succeeded See also:Auber as director of the Paris Conservatoire in 187r. His music is often distinguished by refined touches which reveal a sensitive mind, and there is a distinct See also:element of See also:poetry in his Mignon and Hamlet, two operas that should suffice to keep the composer's memory See also:green for some See also:time to come. He died on the 12th of See also:February 1806. (A.

End of Article: THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)

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