Rousseau, Samuel-Alexandre
Rousseau, Samuel-Alexandre
Rousseau, Samuel-Alexandre , French conductor, teacher, and composer, father of Marcel (-Auguste-Louis) Rousseau ; b. Neuve-Maison, Aisne, June 11, 1853; d. Paris, Oct. 1, 1904. He studied at the Paris Cons. with Franck (organ) and Bazin (composition), winning the Grand Prix de Rome with the cantata La Fille de Jephté (1878) and the Prix Cressent with the comic opera Dianora (Paris, Opéra-Comique, Dec. 22, 1879). His opera Mérowig was awarded the Prize of the City of Paris, and was performed in concert form at the Grand Théâtre there on Dec. 12, 1892. In 1892 he was appointed conductor at the Théâtre-Lyrique in Paris. He was for 10 years chorus master at the Société des Concerts du Cons., and also taught harmony at the Paris Cons. On June 8, 1898, his lyric drama La Cloche du Rhin was staged at the Paris Opéra with considerable success, but had only 9 performances in all; this was followed by the music dramas Milia (Opéra-Comique, 1904) and Léone (Opéra-Comique, March 7, 1910).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire