LÉO DELIBES

A Mailman's Son Meets the Piano

I was born on 21 February 1836 in a village called Saint-Germain-du-Val, and my father worked for the post office. He died early, so it was my mother who shaped my musical life: she was a talented amateur musician and the daughter of an opera singer. With a background like that, I was never going to deliver anything but tunes. In 1847 I started studying composition at the Paris Conservatoire, under a teacher named Adolphe Adam.

Two Acts and a Doll

My first big step came in 1866, when I was asked to write two acts of a ballet called La Source, while Ludwig Minkus wrote the other two. It was a bit like two cooks sharing one soup, but it put my name in front of the people who mattered at the Paris Opéra. Then on 25 May 1870 the Opéra staged my ballet Coppélia, choreographed by Arthur Saint-Léon. It was based on a spooky story by E. T. A. Hoffmann called Der Sandmann, and I made it light and sparkling, which is what the audience loved.

Paris, From the Pit to the Organ Loft

Paris was my whole working world, and I tried most of its musical jobs before I became known as a composer. I played piano for rehearsals and trained choirs at the Théâtre Lyrique, and later I was second chorus master at the Paris Opéra. In the 1850s and 1860s I also wrote light comic operas for Offenbach's Bouffes-Parisiens, which taught me how to keep a tune cheerful and quick. From 1865 to 1871 I even played the organ at the church of Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot, so I knew the city's theaters and its churches equally well.

Sylvia Takes the Stage

The work I am proudest of, and the one you can find on this site, is my ballet Sylvia. It was first performed on 14 June 1876 at the Palais Garnier in Paris, with choreography by Louis Mérante. Tchaikovsky wrote to his friend Taneyev that it was the first ballet in which the music is not only the main interest but the only one, and I still enjoy hearing that. The year after the premiere I was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, which pleased me very much.

A Professor With an Opera in His Pocket

In 1881 I took over from Napoléon Henri Reber as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, the school where I had once been a student myself. On 14 April 1883 my opera Lakmé was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. In 1884 I was elected to the Institut de France, which is about as respectable as a French musician can get. I died in Paris on 16 January 1891, aged 54, and I was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

The Duet That Learned to Fly

My music kept living long after me, and sometimes in surprising places. The Flower Duet from Act 1 of Lakmé, sung by Lakmé and her servant Mallika, became far more famous in the 1980s through British Airways advertisements. I am glad it found so many new listeners, even if I never planned it for an airline. Among musicians, I am remembered as a man who showed that ballet music could be a real work of art, and not just a background for the dancers' steps.

What I Would Like to Hand You

If you listen to Sylvia, I hope you will simply enjoy yourself, with no homework and no need to know anything beforehand. The melodies are meant to be graceful and clear, and I wrote them so that anyone can follow them. Let them carry you along for a while, as you would let a good conversation with a friend carry you. That is all I ask, and I think it is quite a lot of fun.