Ambroise Thomas was born in Metz on the fifth day of August, 1811. He
was the son of a musician and received his first instruction in music
from his father. In his earliest childhood he developed a talent for
music and when only four years of age he began his musical studies.
Three years later he had instruction on the violin and piano, for which
latter instrument he manifested a special gift, and he was already an
excellent performer on it, when, in 1828, at the age of seventeen, he
was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire and became the pupil of
Zimmermann in piano playing, of Dourien for harmony, and of Lesueur for
composition. Kalkbrenner, then in the height of his fame, took a great
interest in the boy and aided his study of the piano, while Barbereau
gave him lessons in counterpoint. He was a diligent student, and one
year after his entrance to the Conservatoire he won the first prize for
piano playing. The year following, he carried off the first prize for
harmony, and two years later the Grand Prix was awarded him; and when
only twenty-one, he went to Italy at the expense of the State, remaining
there for the prescribed three years, and studying conscientiously.
During this period he wrote a string quintet; a quartet for strings; a
trio for pianoforte, violin, and ’cello; a fantasia for pianoforte and
orchestra; a fantasia on Scotch melodies, for piano; six capriccios in
the form of waltzes, for piano; two nocturnes for piano, a rondo for
four hands, for the same instrument; six Italian songs; three motets,
with organ, and a requiem, with orchestra. These works were all
published, as was also his prize cantata “Hermann and Ketty.” They are
now forgotten, but they were then evidences of great industry and of a
leaning in the direction of what was most worthy in the art into which
the young musician had been born, and they attracted earnest critical
attention.
He returned to Paris early in 1836, and at once sought for a hearing at
the Opéra Comique, the first ambition of a young French composer. He did
not have long to wait, for in August, 1837, his one-act opera, “La
Double Echelle,” was performed, and so favorably received that he
obtained a firm foothold at the opera house and produced there “Le
Perruquier de la Régence,” three acts (1838); “Le Panier Fleuri,” one
act (1839). In the meanwhile, encouraged by his success, he aspired to
the Académie, and in 1839 produced there, in collaboration with Benoist,
La “Gipsy,” a ballet in two acts. He also composed for the same
establishment “Le Comte de Carmagnola” (1841); “Le Guerillero” (1842);
and “Betty,” a ballet in two acts (1846). None of these was successful.
At that time Auber, Halévy, Meyerbeer and Donizetti were composing for
the Académie, and it was not easy for a young artist to hold his own
against them. Thomas had not neglected the Opéra Comique, for which he
wrote “Carline” (1840); “Angélique et Médor” (1843); “Mina” (1843), all
of which failed to make any favorable impression on the public.
Discouraged by the lack of success that attended his efforts, he ceased
to write for the lyric stage, and for five years remained silent. When
he was heard again it was in “Le Caïd,” a three-act comic opera, which
was produced in 1849, and achieved a brilliant success, making a tour of
Europe. It was followed in 1850 by “Le Songe d’une nuit d’été,” in three
acts. This opera was no less fortunate in the reception accorded it, and
at once gave Thomas a foremost place among the young French composers of
the day. Then came “Raymond,” three acts (1851); “La Tonelli” (1853);
“La Cour de Célimène” (1855); “Psyché” (1857); “Le Carnaval de Venise”
(1857); “Le Roman d’Elvire.” Some of these obtained slight temporary
success, but not one of them won the popularity that attended “Le Caïd”
and “Le Songe.” Again Thomas retired from view, and this time it was six
years before he produced another opera.
In 1851 he became a member of the Institute, and in 1852, Professor of
Composition in the Conservatoire. Up to this time Thomas had
distinguished himself as a fluent and refined melodist, and by his
piquant orchestration; he was also noted as a master of musical comedy.
Nevertheless he had not yet been able to win for himself a rank equal to
that of Auber, and in French comic opera, “Le Maçon,” “Fra Diavolo,” “Le
Domino Noir,” and “Les Diamants de la Couronne,” which had been composed
before Thomas went into his second seclusion, still surpassed all that
the latter had produced, and survive to this day, while, with the
exception of “Le Caïd,” none of Thomas’s operas antecedent to 1850 are
ever performed.
In 1866 “Mignon” was heard, and Thomas at once leaped to world-wide
fame. The work had an overwhelming success, and has been given in every
opera house in the world. Two years later this masterpiece was followed
by “Hamlet,” which was equally successful in France, though it has not,
elsewhere, proved as popular as “Mignon.” On the strength of these two
fine operas he was appointed, in 1871, to fill the position of Director
of the Conservatoire, left vacant by the death of Auber. His other
compositions, not yet mentioned, are a cantata composed for the
inauguration of a statue to Lesueur (1852); a “Messe Solennelle” (1857);
a “Marche Réligieuse” (1865); “Hommage à Boïeldieu,” composed for the
centenary of Boïeldieu (1875), and many part songs, among them “La
Vapeur,” “Le Chant des Amis,” “Le Tyrol,” “France,” “L’Atlantique,” “Le
Carnaval de Rome,” “Le Traineaux,” “Le Temple de la Paix,” “La Nuit du
Sabbat,” some of which are works of the highest merit, in their order.
In 1874 was produced “Gille et Gilleton,” a one-act comic opera,
written, however, in 1861. “Psyché” was revived in 1878 with additions,
but though the music is full of graceful beauty, and was warmly praised,
it made no marked impression on the general public. After “Hamlet,”
Thomas did not bring forward another opera for fourteen years, and then
he made another brilliant success with “Françoise di Rimini” (1882), in
which was some of the finest music he had ever written, especially in
the prologue and in the fourth act. He was now seventy-one years of age,
and could well rest on the laurels he had won. From that date until the
present (1893), he has produced no new lyric work, his only contribution
to the stage of the opera being a ballet founded on “The Tempest,” by
Shakespeare (1889), which, though remarkable as the effort of a man
seventy-eight years old, was not destined to be numbered among his
successes. In fact, with this work his career as a composer appears to
have ended. He received the grand Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1880.
At the age of eighty-two, he is still fulfilling his duties at the
Conservatoire, in which institution he has worked many important and
useful reforms. He has improved the method of instruction, has
instituted lectures on the general history of music; has founded an
orchestral class and compulsory vocal classes for reading at sight, and
has raised the standard of solfeggio teaching. Not only this, but he has
been largely instrumental in increasing the salaries of the professors,
and has enlarged the prosperity of the institution until it has reached
a point that makes it almost self-paying. Thomas has lived a wholly
artistic life and has, fortunately, escaped most of the severer trials
experienced by the majority of those who have devoted themselves to that
branch of his art which has brought him fame and competence. He is given
to physical exercise, is fond of country life, has a villa at Argenteuil
and an island home at Zillieo, in Brittany. He is not without literary
talent and his tastes are refined. He is an enthusiastic collector of
bric-a-brac, and rarely fails attendance at any of the more important
auctions at the Hotel Druot.
[Illustration:
Fac-simile autograph manuscript of an “Album Leaf” written by Ambroise
Thomas.
]
Ambroise Thomas’ life as a composer for the Paris opera houses covered
fifty-two years. In that time he wrote much charming music, but he never
developed any individuality of style, never wrote anything so
distinctively his own that it could at once be attributed to him by
reason of any characteristics belonging peculiarly and distinguishingly
to him. His earlier operas, produced between 1837 and 1848, are marked
by refinement of taste, and graceful finish in workmanship. After that
and until 1860 his method underwent a change, and he sought brilliancy
and piquancy, as instanced in “Le Caïd,” and gradually warmed into
poetic feeling and deeper sentiment, departing, in the meanwhile, from
the conventionalities that Rossini and other Italian composers had
fastened on French opera music. His growth in his art has been steady
from the very outset, but if he has ceased to write after “Le Roman
d’Elvire,” which ended this period of his musical development, his fame
as a composer would hardly have survived down to the present time. From
the opera just named to “Mignon” was an enormous stride, and the
brilliant reputation this work made for him was sustained by “Hamlet”
and “Françoise di Rimini.” But even these, his masterpieces, do not
present him in the light of a composer who had something to say that had
not been said before. His art evolution had enlarged his method of
thought and had enabled him to give a wider scope to his talents, but it
had not endowed him with a style that set him apart from other
composers. We hear of the style of Auber, and it brings a clear idea of
a strongly marked musical individuality to our mind. The same may be
said of the style of Meyerbeer and also that of Gounod; but to speak of
the style of Thomas would be to convey no such distinct and instant
suggestion of a definite and an unmistakable originality, like that
which pertains essentially to Bizet.
The music of Thomas is always polished and delicate; his operas show
that he has an innate feeling for dramatic effect; his musical comedies
are models for the intimate blending of music with the spirit of the
words and the stage situations. His harmonies are rich and flowing, and
impart to his work a decided air of refined elegance. His
instrumentation emphasizes convincingly his thorough mastery over the
resources of the modern orchestra and a sensitive appreciation of the
characteristic tone-color of the different instruments. His scores are
never overloaded, and as the rule the right touch is always put by him
in the right place. The voice is never overwhelmed by the orchestra.
With all these merits he is rarely if ever emphatic, and strength and
intensity of passion are not among his musical gifts. Love, melancholy,
gaiety and poetic tenderness are the sentiments in which he excels.
Fire, and a vigorous sweep of emotional feeling are not within his power
to depict. The changes in the style of his scores are the changes that
the varying musical tastes of the times brought about. He never formed
these tastes, but he invariably followed them. His earlier operas are in
the vein of Auber or of Rossini, sometimes of both in combination. When
the fashion of the day called for more dramatic expression he followed
in the footsteps of Halévy. Later, when brilliancy, tunefulness and
graceful commonplace were the vogue, he had no scruple against modelling
himself on Clapisson. It was not until Gounod had risen into fame and
“Faust” became the rage, filling the music-loving world with delight,
that Thomas found it possible to write “Mignon” and “Hamlet,” in both
which operas the influence of the younger composer is shown on almost
every page. Thomas has not the gift of originality, but he has the gift
of receptivity and the faculty of assimilation largely developed. Twice
he went into seclusion, and each time when he reappeared it was with a
style in harmony with that of the favorite opera composers of the hour.
There is nothing culpable in this, for it proves conclusively, that
Thomas was always an untiring student. It is undeniable, that on every
occasion his style underwent a radical change, it showed an advance in
the broader and more impressive essentials of his art, and added to the
fame of the composer. The works in which he will live are those which
belong to his last period.
[Illustration: