Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (27 May 1799 – 17 March 1862) (usually known as Fromental Halévy) was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.
Halévy was born in Paris, the son of a cantor, Elie Halfon Halévy, who was the secretary of the Jewish community of Paris, a writer and a teacher of Hebrew, and a French Jewish mother. The name Fromental, by which he was generally known, reflects that he was born on the f...
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Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (27 May 1799 – 17 March 1862) (usually known as Fromental Halévy) was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.
Halévy was born in Paris, the son of a cantor, Elie Halfon Halévy, who was the secretary of the Jewish community of Paris, a writer and a teacher of Hebrew, and a French Jewish mother. The name Fromental, by which he was generally known, reflects that he was born on the feast-day of that name in the French Revolutionary calendar which was still operative at that time. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine or ten (accounts differ), in 1809, becoming a pupil and later protegé of Cherubini. After two second-place attempts, he won the Prix de Rome in 1819: his cantata subject was Herminie.
As he had to delay his departure to Rome because of the death of his mother, he was able to accept the first commission that brought him to public attention - a ' Marche Funebre et De Profundis en Hebreu ' for...
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