Xavier Henry Napoleón Leroux (Velletri

Velletri

Velletri is an Italian town of 53,298 inhabitants. It is a comune in the province of Rome, on the Alban Hills, in Lazio - Italy. It is bounded by other communes of Rocca di Papa, Lariano, Cisterna di Latina, Artena, Aprilia, Nemi, Genzano di Roma, Lanuvio...

, Italy, October 11, 1863 – Paris, February 2, 1919) was a French composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

 and Théodore Dubois

Théodore Dubois

François-Clément Théodore Dubois was a French composer, organist and music teacher.-Biography:Théodore Dubois was born in Rosnay in Marne. He studied first under Louis Fanart and later at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas. He won the Prix de Rome in 1861...

, and won the Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome

The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...

 in 1885 with the cantata Endymion. From 1896 he taught harmony there.

Leroux composed several orchestral and choral works, songs, and piano pieces, but he was primarily known for his operas.

Operas

• Evangéline, libretto by Louis de Gramont
  Louis de Gramont
  Louis Ferdinand de Gramont was a French journalist, dramatist, and librettist. He was a son of Ferdinand de Gramont.Gramont was born in Sèvres and finished his studies at the college there, then entered the School of Law...
  
  , 1895
• Astarté, libretto by Louis de Gramont, 1901
• La reine Fiammette
  La reine Fiammette
  La reine Fiammette is an opera in 4 Acts by composer Xavier Leroux. The opera uses a French language libretto by Catulle Mendès which is based on Mendès's 1898 work of the same name, a conte dramatique in six acts set in Renaissance Italy. The opera's premiere was given by the Opéra-Comique at the...
  
  , 1903
• Vénus et Adonis, libretto by Louis de Gramont, 1905
• William Ratcliff, libretto by Louis de Gramont after Heinrich Heine
  Heinrich Heine
  Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
  
  , 1906
• Le chemineau, 1907
• Théodora, 1907
• Le carillonneur, 1913
• La fille de Figaro, 1914
• Les cadeaux de noël, 1915
• 1814, 1918
• Nausithoé, 1920
• La plus forte, 1924
• L'ingénu, 1931