Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold was born in Paris on January 28, 1791. He
began to study music when he was eleven. From 1805 to 1812 he attended
the Paris Conservatory where his teachers included Adam and Méhul. In
1812 he received the Prix de Rome. Following his three-year stay in Rome
he settled in Naples where he was pianist to Queen Caroline and had his
first opera, _La Gioventù di Enrico_, produced in 1815. After returning
to his native city he completed a new opera, _Charles de France_, which
was successfully produced in 1816 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris where,
from this time on, all his operas were given. Hérold wrote many serious
operas before turning to the field in which he earned his importance and
popularity, the opéra-comique. His first work in this genre was _Marie_
in 1826; his most successful, _Zampa_, in 1831. He also enjoyed a
triumph with his last opéra-comique, _Le Pré aux clercs_, produced in
1832. Hérold died of consumption in Paris on January 19, 1833 before
reaching his forty-second birthday.
About all that has survived from Hérold’s most famous opera, _Zampa_, is
its overture, a semi-classical favorite everywhere. _Zampa_—libretto by
Mélesville—was introduced at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on May 3, 1831.
The hero, Zampa, is the leader of a band of pirates who invade an
island. He meets Camille and compels her to desert her lover and marry
him. During the marriage festivities the pirate leader mockingly tries
to place a ring on the finger of a statue. The statue suddenly comes to
life and brings Zampa to his doom by drowning.
The overture opens with a robust subject for full orchestra (derived
from the pirates’ chorus of the first act). A brief pause separates this
section from a slower one in which timpani rolls and loud chords in the
wind precede a stately melody for wind instruments. After some
development, in which the mood becomes dramatic, two new subjects are
heard: the first is a sensitive melody for clarinet against plucked
strings, and the second is a soaring song for the violins.