ELIE (1799-1862), French composer, was born on May 1 799, in Paris, of a Jewish family of the name of Levy. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Berton and Cherubini, and in 1819 gained the grand prix de Rome with his cantata Herminie. At Rome he devoted himself to the study of Italian music. and wrote an opera and various minor works. In 1827 his opera L'Arti san was performed at the Theatre Feydeau in Paris, apparently without much success. Other works of minor importance, and now forgotten, followed, amongst which Manors Lescaut, a ballet, produced in 1830, deserves mention. In 1834 the Opera-Comique produced Ludovic, the score of which had been begun by Herold and had been completed by Halevy. In 1835 Halevy composed the tragic opera La Juive and the comic opera L'Eclair, and on these works his fame is mainly founded. L'Eclair is something of a curiosity, being written for two tenors and two soprani, without a chorus. After these two works he wrote numerous operas of various genres. He died at Nice, on March 17, 1862.
See Leon Halevy, Francois Halevy, sa vie, ses oeuvres (1862) ; and other works by Ch. de Lorbas, Beule, E. Monnais and A. Pongin.