Ernest Reyer

Reyer worked between 1823 and 1909 across composer and music critic. The registers place that work in opera. This article rests on 12 catalogued compositions, 12 published texts and 29 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Ernest Reyer studied at Lycée Thiers and Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Marseille. Training under Louise Farrenc is recorded. The recorded working language is French. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera. Positions recorded include librarian and Inspector general of the Public Instruction. Works named in the authority record are Sigurd and Salammbô. Distinctions recorded are Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and Order of the Red Eagle.

Ernest Reyer was born in Marseille. His father, a notary, did not want his son to take up a career in music. However, he did not actively block his son's ambitions and allowed him to attend classes at the Conservatoire from age six to sixteen. In 1839, when he was 16 years old, Ernest traveled to north Africa to work under his brother-in-law, head of accounting for the Treasury Department in Algeria. The job was not a good fit with Reyer's nonchalant and undisciplined temperament. From administrative documents, it is apparent that Reyer wrote innumerable youthful essays and stories, and original dance pieces. Some of his early compositions achieved local notoriety and received favorable comments in the Algerian press, including a Mass performed at the cathedral that was performed for the arrival of the Duke of Aumale in 1847. Reyer returned to Paris during the events of 1848. During this period, he was introduced to various eminent artists, including Gustave Flaubert and Théophile Gautier. Southern France and Provence held its allure, and Reyer returned there to socialize with local people with whom he loved to play dominoes while smoking a pipe. He said that his pipe was his best source of inspiration. His aunt, Louise Farrenc, professor of piano at the Conservatoire and a talented composer in her own right, directed Reyer's early musical studies. In 1850, he composed a symphonic ode entitled Le Sélam for soloists and chorus to words by Gautier. Four years later, in 1854, he composed music for an opera in one act, Maître Wolfram ("Master Wolfram"), whose libretto was by Joseph Méry. Hearing a performance of this work at the Opéra Comique, Berlioz recognized Reyer's talent. He said that Reyer's output had "nothing in common with the somewhat affected, somewhat dilapidated approach the Paris muse [...]. His melodies are natural [...]. There's heart and imagination there." Gradually, some fame came Reyer's way. In 1857, the critic Charles Monselet wrote: "Is this a musician who writes, or a writer who makes music? I do not know, but I am hopeful that this spirited boy will make his way to singing and writing." Admittedly, Reyer was not (yet) unanimously praised and some critics pointed-out that his orchestration had not achieved a level of musical genius. The following year he composed a ballet, Sacountalâ, with a story, once again, by Gautier, the plot of which was based on Kālidāsa's Shakuntala. The ballet was given twenty-four performances through to 1860. In 1861, Reyer composed an opéra-comique in three acts and six scenes, La statue ("The Statue"), whose plot was inspired by "One Thousand and One Nights" (also knowns as: "Arabian Nights") with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier. It was premiered in Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on April 11, 1861. In less than two years, La statue achieved sixty performances, an impressive figure for the period. Reyer's work was finally universally recognized in 1862, and the composer from Marseilles became a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. The same year, he composed Érostrate, an opera in two acts, which was played in August 1862 in Baden-Baden, under the auspices of great families in Europe, which earned him the distinction of receiving the Red Eagle from the hands of the Queen of Prussia. Little by little, however, his reputation began to decline. The same Érostate failed completely in Paris and was staged for only three performances, which deprived the work of a possible production at the Opéra. • Illustration — The bust of Reyer, located in Le Lavandou where he died in 1909. The best-known of his five operas is Sigurd (1884); it was quite popular in France during its initial production there (it had its premiere in Brussels at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in January 1884), and is sometimes (although rarely) revived. Sigurd is based on the Scandinavian legends of the Edda Völsunga saga (Nibelungenlied), the same source which Richard Wagner drew upon for the libretto for his Ring cycle. The music of Sigurd, however, is quite unlike the music of Wagner. While Reyer admired Wagner, he developed his music more along the lines of his mentor, Hector Berlioz. Listening to Sigurd, one cannot help but hear echoes of Les Troyens or Benvenuto Cellini, imbued with the same heroic musical posture. Reyer's last opera was Salammbô (1890), based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert, which achieved 46 performances from May to December 1892. The work had been composed several years earlier but had been met with initial resistance by administrators, as had Sigurd. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels in 1890, and at the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen. Unable to live on the proceeds from his operas, Reyer succeeded Berlioz as music critic at the Journal des débats. He also worked as the librarian at the Académie de musique. Reyer died in Le Lavandou, in the south of France, ~80 km east of Marseilles.

Ernest Reyer was recorded at birth as Ernest rey Rodríguez de Guzmán. He also worked under the name Ernest Reyer. The authorities additionally record the headings Ernest Rey, Rey, Ernest and Louis Étienne Ernest Rey dit Reyer. His recorded language was French. Other recorded relations include Louise Farrenc and Aristide Farrenc.

Ernest Reyer is recorded with the occupation music critic. Recorded as a citizen of France. Classed in the genre opera. Established in Bibliothèque nationale de France under 13898949k. Established in Library of Congress under n84107954. Established in IMSLP under Category:Reyer,_Ernest. Established in FAST under 134959.