GOUNOD, CHARLES FRANCOIS French composer, was born in Paris on June 17th, 1818, the son of F. L. Gounod, a talented painter. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Reicha, Halevy and Lesueur, and won the "Grand Prix de Rome" in 1839. In Rome he devoted much of his time to the study of the works of Palestrina and Bach. In 1843 he went to Vienna, where a "requiem" of his composition was performed. On his return to Paris he tried in vain to find a publisher for some songs which he had written in Rome. He became organist to the chapel of the "Missions Etrangeres," and seems to have contemplated entering holy orders. Through the intervention however of Madame Viardot, the celebrated singer, he was com missioned (1851) to compose an opera on Sapho, a text by Emile Augier, for the Academie Nationale de Musique. Its success was not very great but it brought its composer's name to the fore, though for a time not to any great purpose, since neither his second dramatic attempt consisting of some choruses written for Ulysse, a tragedy by Ponsard, played at the Theatre Francais in 1852, conducted by Offenbach, nor his third La Nonne sang lante, given at the Paris Opera in 1854, advanced his reputation.
Goethe's Faust had for years exercised a strong fascination over Gounod, and he at last determined to turn it to operatic account. The performance at a Paris theatre of a drama on the same subject delayed the production of his opera for a time. In the meanwhile he prepared a pleasing operatic version of Moliere's comedy, Le Medecin malgre lui (Theatre Lyrique, 1858). The first performance of Faust took place at the Theatre Lyrique on March 19, 1859. The subject had already inspired in various ways Spohr, Schumann, Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner among others. Faust was given in London in 1863, when its success at first doubtful, became enormous, so that it was heard concurrently at Covent Garden and Her Majesty's theatres.
Gounod's next opera was Philemon et Baucis a charming set ting of the mythological tale (Theatre Lyrique, 186o) in which the composer followed the traditions of the Opera Comique, em ploying spoken dialogue, though without abandoning the individu ality of his own style. La Reine de Saba (Grand Opera, Feb. 28, 1862) a four-act opera, was a more ambitious work, but had little success, although the score contains some of the composer's hap piest inspirations. La Reine de Saba was adapted for the English stage under the name of Irene. Mireille, which followed (Theatre Lyrique, March 19, 1864), founded upon the Mireio of the Pro vencal poet Mistral, contains much charming and characteristic music, but again the public was unresponsive; nor did La Colombe, heard at Baden in 186o, and at the Opera Comique, succeed.
Gounod next sought inspiration in Shakespeare, and in the result Romeo et Juliette (Theatre Lyrique, April 27, 1867) had a success second only to that of Faust. Some have even preferred it to the latter. Gounod expressed his own opinion of the rela tive value of the two operas enigmatically by saying, "Faust is the oldest, but I was younger; Romeo is the youngest, but I was older." The success of Romeo et Juliette in Paris was great from the outset. In London it was not until the part of Romeo was sung by Jean de Reszke that the work was fully recognized.
Corneille's Polyeucte provided the subject of Gounod's next opera, but its production was delayed by the Franco-German war, during which Gounod visited London. There he composed the "biblical elegy" Gallia for the inauguration of the Royal Albert Hall, and a number of songs to English words, many of which have attained an enduring popularity, such as "Maid of Athens," "There is a green hill far away." On his return to Paris he hur riedly set to music an operatic version of Alfred de Vigny's Cinq Mars (Opera Comique, April 5, 1877), which found little favour. Polyeucte, which appeared at the Grand Opera on Oct. 7, 1878 was no better received; nor was Le Tribut de Zamora 0880.
But Gounod had other strings to his bow besides the theatre. As Saint-Saens put it in his Portraits et Souvenirs: Gounod did not cease all his life to write for the church, to accumulate masses and motets ; but it was at the commencement of his career, in the Messe de Sainte Cecile, and at the end, in the oratorios The Redemption and Mors et vita, that he rose highest.
Saint-Saens held that the three works mentioned will survive all the master's operas and however this may be they certainly contain many beautiful pages which have won them warm ad mirers along with the Messe du Sucre Coeur (1876) and the Messe a la memoire de Jeanne d'Arc (1887). The Redemption, a "sacred triology," dedicated to Queen Victoria, and produced at the Birmingham Festival of 1882 bears the unmistakable im print of the composer's hand, but the work in its entirety is not exempt from monotony. Mors et vita, dedicated to Pope Leo XIII., was first produced in Birmingham, at the Festival of 1885.
Gounod was a great worker. Besides the works already men tioned may be named two symphonies which were played during the '5os, but have long since fallen into neglect. He also at tempted to set Moliere's comedy, Georges Dandin, to music, keeping to the original prose, but this work was never performed. Gounod died at St. Cloud on Oct. 18, 1893.