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 three part choir,
tenor and orchestra, which was commissioned by the
Consistoire Israélite du Département de la Seine, for a public service in memory of the assassinated
duc de Berry, performed on March 24, 1820. Later, his brother
Léon recalled that the
De Profundis, "infused with religious fervor, created a sensation, and attracted interest to the young laureate of the institute."
Halévy was chorus master at the
Théâtre Italien, while he struggled to get an opera performed. Despite the mediocre reception of
L'artisan, at the
Opéra-Comique in 1827, Halévy moved on to be chorus master at the
Opéra. The same year he became professor of harmony and accompaniment at the Conservatoire, where he was professor of counterpoint and fugue in 1833 and of composition in 1840. He was elected to the
Institut de France in 1836.
rss feed