Manuel Rosenthal facts for kids
Manuel Rosenthal (born June 18, 1904 – died June 5, 2003) was a famous French composer and conductor. He held important jobs with music groups in France and America. He was friends with many other composers of his time. Even though he wrote many pieces, he is best known for arranging the music for the popular ballet Gaîté Parisienne. This ballet used music from Jacques Offenbach's operettas. He was also well-known for his recordings as a conductor.
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Early Musical Journey
Manuel Rosenthal was born in Paris, France. His mother was from Russia. He started learning to play the violin when he was just six years old. After his stepfather passed away in 1918, Manuel played violin in cafes and movie theaters to help support his mother and sisters.
In 1920, he joined the Paris Conservatoire, a famous music school. Besides playing violin, he also studied how to compose music. During this time, he met other young composers like Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger. He even wrote some of his own music for a concert in 1921.
His piece called Sonatine for two violins and piano was very well-received in 1924. Later, he became a student of the famous composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel encouraged Manuel a lot, which helped him win the Prix Blumenthal in 1928, a valuable award. Ravel also helped Manuel's one-act opera, Rayon des soieries, be performed in Paris in 1930. Manuel Rosenthal even made his conducting debut at a concert featuring his own music, thanks to Ravel.
Leading Orchestras
Manuel Rosenthal began his serious conducting career in 1934. He became an assistant conductor for the Orchestre National de France. In 1936, he was invited to conduct the Orchestre de Radio PTT. As he became more famous, he even received an offer to be an assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in America. After Ravel passed away in 1937, Manuel became a close friend and colleague of the great Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.
His music career was paused during World War II. He was a soldier and was captured by the Germans in 1940. Even as a prisoner of war, he organized concerts and even wrote a short opera! He managed to escape and later bravely joined the French Resistance, working with other musicians to fight for freedom.
After Paris was freed in 1944, he returned to the Orchestre National de France as their main conductor until 1947. He made sure they played a wide variety of new music, including many works by Stravinsky. He even took the orchestra to England for a huge concert with 13,500 people!
In 1946, Manuel Rosenthal conducted for the first time in the USA with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He later became the music director for the Seattle Symphony from 1948 to 1951. He also conducted in other cities like San Francisco and Buenos Aires. He continued to lead orchestras in places like Algiers and Tunis.
From 1964 to 1967, he was the music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège. He also taught conducting at the Paris Conservatoire from 1962 to 1974. Many of his students became famous conductors themselves, like Yan Pascal Tortelier. He helped bring back older operas, like Jean-Philippe Rameau's Zoroastre, and conducted them in France.
In 1981, Manuel Rosenthal made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a very famous opera house. He returned there several times. In 1986, he went back to Seattle to conduct Richard Wagner's huge opera series, Ring cycle. He also conducted the first performances of Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande in Russia (1988) and Venezuela (1988).
Creative Compositions
Manuel Rosenthal wrote a lot of music in many different styles. He composed operas, ballets, and pieces for orchestras, choirs, and solo instruments. He didn't stick to just one style, which was unusual for composers in Paris in the 1920s.
His reputation as a composer in France grew with his work Jeanne d'Arc, first performed in 1936. He also wrote a fun, light opera called La Poule Noire in 1937.
His most famous work as a composer was actually an arrangement of other music. This was the 1938 ballet Gaîté Parisienne. He took music from Jacques Offenbach's operettas and arranged it for the ballet. Another composer was supposed to do it, but he was too busy, so Manuel took over. At first, the choreographer wasn't sure about it, but after Igor Stravinsky helped, the ballet was accepted and became a huge success! Manuel also arranged music by other composers like Federico Mompou and Ravel.
He also wrote many beautiful pieces for choirs and religious services, such as La Pietà d'Avignon (1943) and Missa Deo Gratias (1953).
Works List
Stage Works
- Rayon des soieries, 1923-1926, a funny opera
- Un baiser pour rien, 1928-1929, a ballet
- Les Bootleggers, 1932, a musical comedy
- La Poule noire, 1933-1937, a musical comedy
- Gaîté Parisienne, 1938, a ballet based on Offenbach's music
- Que le diable l'emporte, 1948, a ballet
- Les femmes au tombeau, 1956, a dramatic opera
- Hop, Signor! 1957-1961, a dramatic opera
Orchestral Music
- Sérénade, 1927
- Jeanne d'Arc, 1934–36
- Les petits métiers, 1933 (a suite of pieces about different jobs)
- Musique de table, 1941 (music for a dinner party)
- Noce Villageoise, 1941 (Village Wedding)
- Symphonies de Noël, 1947 (Christmas Symphonies)
- Magic Manhattan, 1948
- Symphony in C, 1949
- Offenbachiana, 1953 (music inspired by Offenbach)
- Rondes Françaises, 1955 (French Rounds)
Vocal and Choral Music
- Saint François d'Assise, 1936–39
- Trois burlesques, 1941
- La pietà d’Avignon, 1943
- Cantate pour le temps de la Nativité, 1943–44 (Cantata for Christmas Time)
- Deux sonnets de Jean Cassou, 1944
- A choeur vaillant, 1952–53
- Missa Deo Gratias, 1953 (Mass of Thanks to God)
- Trois pièces liturgiques, 1958 (Three Liturgical Pieces)
Instrumental Music
- Sonatine for two violins and piano, 1922
- Saxophone-Marmelade, 1929
- Les Soirées du Petit Juas, string quartet, 1942
- Aesopi Convivium (for violin, piano, and orchestra), 1947-1948
About His Life
Manuel Rosenthal had two sons, Alain (born 1933) and Clément (born 1956). He received high honors from France, becoming a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1961 and a Commandeur in 1991. He became a Catholic later in life. In 1999, he wrote a small book called 'Crescendo vers Dieu' (Growing Towards God), where he shared his religious beliefs. He passed away in Paris in 2003, just before his 99th birthday.
