Hervé (composer) facts for kids
Louis-Auguste Florimond Ronger (born June 30, 1825 – died November 4, 1892) was a talented French musician. He was known by his stage name, Hervé. He was a singer, composer (someone who writes music), librettist (someone who writes the words for operas), conductor, and even a scene painter! Many people say he invented a fun type of musical show called operetta in Paris.
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Hervé's Life and Music
Hervé was born in a town called Houdain in France. When he was young, he became a choirboy at the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris. People quickly noticed how good he was at music.
He went to a famous music school called the Conservatoire. There, he studied with a well-known teacher named Daniel Auber. By the time he was 15, Hervé was already working as an organist (someone who plays the organ) at a hospital. He also sang on stage in smaller theaters, where he practiced his strong tenor voice.
In 1845, Hervé won a big competition. This made him the organist at the important Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris. Even while working as an organist, he also had a career in theater. He later used this experience in his most famous show, Mam'zelle Nitouche.
Inventing Operetta
Before becoming a music director in 1851, Hervé created a short, funny musical play. It was a silly version of Don Quixote called Don Quichotte et Sancho Pança. He wrote it for a short, round actor named Desiré. Hervé himself, who was tall and lanky, played the other main character. He started using the name Hervé to keep his two careers (church organist and theater musician) separate.
This play was shown in 1848 and was a big hit, even though there was a revolution happening in France at the time. Some experts say this funny musical mix was the very first French operetta. Hervé had also written musical shows to entertain patients at the hospital, and these caught the attention of theater producers.
A New Kind of French Musical
Hervé helped start a new era of French operettas. In 1854, he took over a small theater called the Folies-Concertantes. He wrote many shows for this theater. This made him a pioneer for other composers, like Jacques Offenbach, who later became very famous. Hervé even produced some of Offenbach's early works at his theater.
Many of Hervé's first short plays were funny sketches about current events. Because of theater rules at the time, his shows could only have one act and no more than two characters. This pushed Hervé to try new things with his music. Later, the rules became more flexible.
Hervé and Offenbach soon became rivals. But they eventually made up in 1878. Hervé even sang in a new performance of Offenbach's show, Orphée aux enfers.
Hervé passed away in Paris when he was 67 years old. Since 2015, some of his works have been performed again in France and Italy.
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Hervé's Famous Works
Hervé wrote more than 120 operettas! Here are some of his well-known ones:
- Les folies dramatiques (1853): This show made fun of all the different types of entertainment in Paris, like comedy, tragedy, ballet, and opera.
- Les chevaliers de la Table Ronde (1866)
- L'œil crevé (1867)
- Chilpéric (1868)
- Le petit Faust (1869)
- Les Turcs (1869)
- Le trône d'Écosse (1871)
- La veuve du Malabar (1873)
- La belle poule (1875)
- La roussotte (1881)
- Lili (1882)
- Mam'zelle Nitouche (1883)
See also
In Spanish: Florimond Hervé para niños
