CHARLES CAMILLE g ( ,1_35-1921), French composer, was born in Paris on Oct. 3, 1835. For a short time he studied composition under Halevy, and in 1852, and again in 1864, competed without success for the Grand Prix de Rome. In 1853, when only eighteen, he was organist at the Church of St. Merry, and from 1861 to 1877 was organist at the Madeleine, in succession to Lefebure-Wely. In 1867 his cantata "Les Noces de Promethee" won a prize at the International Ex hibition of that year but his first operas La Princesse jaune (1872) and Le Timbre d'argent (1877) had no great success. It was with his brilliantly effective "symphonic poems" Le Rouet d'Omphale, La Danse Macabre, Phaeton and La Jeunesse d'Hercule that he first attracted general attention as a composer, though his powers as a pianist had been recognised from the first. His success as a dramatic composer was however not long delayed.
Through the influence of Liszt, his Biblical opera Samson et Dalila was brought out at Weimar in 1877 when its merits were immediately recognised, though it was not until 1890 that it was first heard in France, namely at Rouen. This work, generally ac cepted as his operatic masterpiece, had been begun as far back as 1869, and an act had been heard at one of Colonne's concerts in 1875. The following year it was given in Paris at the Eden Theatre, and finally in 1892 it was produced at the Grand Opera, where it has remained ever since, one of the most attractive works of the repertoire. Its Biblical subject prevented its performance in London until 1909, when it was given at Covent Garden with great success. None of his works is better calculated to exemplify the dual tendencies of his style. The first act, with its somewhat f or
mal choruses, suggests the influence of Bach and Handel, and is treated rather in the manner of an oratorio. The more dramatic portions of the opera are not uninfluenced by Meyerbeer, while in the Dalila music there are occasional suggestions of Gounod. But though Saint-Saens was an eclectic he put the stamp of his own individuality on every scene of the opera.
After the production of Samson et Dalila Saint-Saens stood at the parting of the ways and compromised to some extent between the traditional style of the French school and the newer Wagnerian methods. As the result none of his later operas—Etienne Marcel (Lyons, 1879), Henry VIII. (Grand Opera, 1883), Proserpine (Opera-Comique, 1887), Ascanio (Grand Opera, 189o), Phryne (Opera-Comique, 1893;, Las Barbares (Grand Opera, 1901) achieved anything like the success of Samson et Dalila. But Saint Saens by no means confined his attentions to the stage, his com positions including examples in almost every department of the art. Among these may be mentioned the oratorios and cantatas Oratorio de Noel, Les Noces de Promethee, Le Deluge, La Lyre et la Harpe; three symphonies; the four symphonic poems pre viously named; five pianoforte concertos; three violin concertos; the ballet Zavotte; many chamber works; a Mass and a Requiem, besides a quantity of piano and organ music, and many songs. His literary works in turn include Harmonie et melodie, Portraits et souvenirs, and Probkmes et mysteres, besides a volume of poems, Rimes familiares. He died in Algiers on Dec. 16, 1921.