ERNEST

REYER (1823- )  , French composer, was born at Marseilles on the 1st of December 1823 . At the age of sixteen he went to Algeria, and remained there some years . The out-come of his residence there was a symphonic ode entitled Le Selam, the musical orientalism of which had, unluckily for him, already been anticipated by Felicien David in Le Desert . Maitre Wolfram. a one-act opera, was produced at the Opera comique II in 1854; and in 1858 Sacuntala, a ballet, at the Opera . It was the production of La Statue at the Theatre lyrique in 1861 that brought Reyer's name prominently before the public . But Reyer had to wait several years before obtaining a real and permanent success . Erostrate, an opera produced at Baden-Baden in 1862, and given at the Paris Opera some ten years later, was a failure . The composer had in the meanwhile set to work on Sigurd, the subject of which is the same that inspired Wagner in Siegfried and Golterdammerung . It was at last produced in Brussels in 1884, and subsequently brought out at the Paris Opera . Sigurd is a work of great value, displaying its composer's elevated notions as regards the form of the " lyrical drama." Salammbo, founded upon Flaubert's romance, was successfully produced at Brussels in 189o . Gluck, Weber, Berlioz and Wagner exercised most influence over Reyer . As a musical critic (preceding Berlioz in that capacity for the Journal des debats) Reyer was a well-known writer; and he became librarian of the Paris Opera, and a member of the Institute .

His Quarante Ans de musique (with

biographical notice by E . Henriot) was published in 1909 .