François Ruhlmann
Encyclopedia
Life and career
Ruhlmann was a pupil of Joseph DupontJoseph Dupont (violinist)
Henri-Joseph Dupont was a Belgian violinist, leader, theatre director and conductor.-Life:Dupont was born in Ensival, Verviers. He studied the violin at the Liège and Brussels conservatoires and won a Belgian Prix de Rome for composition in 1863...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. As a child he sang in the chorus at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, and at 7 played the oboe in the orchestra.
Ruhlmann's first conducting engagement was at the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen in 1892. This was followed by further work in Liège and Antwerp, before a return to the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in 1898.
François Ruhlmann began his career at the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
, Paris on 6 September 1905 (with Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
), then at the death of Alexandre Luigini
Alexandre Luigini
Alexandre Clément Léon Joseph Luigini was a French composer and conductor, especially active in the opera house. As as composer, he is now remembered almost solely for his Ballet égyptien.-Life and career:...
became principal conductor in 1906 (retiring from the position in 1914). Although mobilised in 1914, he returned occasionally during the war to conduct.
From 1911 he conducted at the theatre of the Casino of Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It is situated on the shore of Lac du Bourget, by rail north of Chambéry.-Geography:...
. Later he championed works by Dukas, Debussy, Fauré and Ravel at the Concerts Populaires in Brussels. In 1920 Ruhlmann tried to mediate in a dispute involving the musicians unions in Paris, although he sympathised with the players.
In 1919 he transferred to the Opéra
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
, where he remained until 1938.
He conducted many operatic premieres:
- Les Pêcheurs de Saint Jean (Widor) 1905
- Les Armaillis (DoretGustave DoretGustave Doret was a Swiss composer and conductor.Doret was born in 1866 in Aigle, Switzerland. He studied at the Berlin Academy of Music with Joseph Joachim, and then at the Paris Conservatory with Théodore Dubois and Jules Massenet...
) 1906 - Le roi aveugle (Février) 1906
- Ariane et Barbe-bleueAriane et Barbe-bleueAriane et Barbe-bleue is an opera in three acts by Paul Dukas. The French libretto is adapted from the symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck....
(Dukas) 1907 - Le Chemineau (LerouxXavier LerouxXavier Henry Napoleón Leroux was a French composer.Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata Endymion...
) 1907 - La Habanéra (Laparra) 1908
- The Snow maiden (Rimsky-Korsakov) Paris premiere 1908
- Chiquito (NouguèsJean NouguèsJean-Charles Nouguès was a French composer of operas.Born in Bordeaux, Nouguès was from a wealthy family, and in his youth he received little formal musical training. His first opera, Le Roi de Papagey, was written when he was only sixteen; after further study in Paris, he composed a second,...
) 1909 - On ne badine pas avec l'amour (d'Erlanger) 1910
- Bérénice (Magnard) 1911
- L’Ancêtre (Saint-Saëns) Paris premiere 1911
- L’heure espagnole (Ravel) 1911
- ThérèseThérèse (opera)Thérèse is an opera in two acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie. It was first performed at the Opéra in Monte Carlo on 7 February 1907, with Lucy Arbell in the title role...
(Massenet) Paris premiere 1911 - La sorcière (Erlanger) 1912
- La Lépreuse (Lazzari) 1912
- La vida breveLa vida breveLa vida breve is an opera in two acts and four scenes by Manuel de Falla to an original Spanish libretto by Carlos Fernández-Shaw...
(FallaManuel de FallaManuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
) Paris premiere 1913 - Mârouf (RabaudHenri RabaudHenri Rabaud was a French conductor and composer, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of the twentieth century....
) 1914 - Lorenzaccio (Moret) 1920
- Esther, princesse d'Israël (MariotteAntoine MariotteAntoine Mariotte, born in Avignon on 22 December 1875 and died in Izieux, on 30 November 1944 was a French composer, conductor and music administrator.- Biography:...
) 1925
He was long associated with Pathé
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
, for whom he made many recordings, including six complete operas after 1910, including Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
(Verdi) on 28 sides; Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
(Gounod) on 56 sides; and Le Trouvère
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
(Verdi), 1912 on 38 sides. He also conducted the 1911 Pathé recording of Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
(54 sides).