Letellier, Robert
Ludwig Minkus (23 March 1826–7 December 1917) grew up in Vienna where he hoped to establish a reputation as a violinist and composer. In 1853 he emigrated to St Petersburg where he became the conductor and solo violinist of the private orchestra of Prince Nikolai Yusupov. In 1861 he became violin soloist and, a year later, conductor of the Moscow Bolshoi Orchestra, and began fruitful working friendship with the choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon. In 1869 the choreographer Marius Petipa invited Minkus to compose the music for his Don Quixote for the Bolshoi Theatre. The ballet was an enormous success and led to Minkus being appointed Official Composer to the Imperial Russian Ballet—a position he held until it was discontinued in 1886. Minkus left Russia and returned to Vienna in the summer of 1891, where he lived in semi retirement until his death in 1917. He wrote music for more than twenty ballets, with Don Quixote (1869), La Bayadère (1877) and his interpolations for Paquita (1881) the most famous.
Léo Delibes (21 February 1836–16 January 1891) studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire under Adolphe Adam, and entered the Opéra as second chorus master in 1865. Although an organist, he excelled initially as a composer of lighter works, writing sparkling operettas in the style of his teacher. The first of them, Deux sous de charbon, was written for the Folies Nouvelles in 1856, when he was just 19. Delibes’s contribution to the score of La Source (1866), his first essay at ballet music, brought him immediate attention. His career culminated in equally successful music for ballet and opera—especially the famous Lakmé (1883), the story of the love of a British officer and the daughter of a Brahmin priest in mid 19th-century India. His ballet music was much admired by other composers—with Coppélia (1870), based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Sylvia (1876), a Classical subject, the most famous works of his maturity.
Robert Ignatius Letellier has specialized in the music and literature of the Romantic Period. He has studied the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer (a four-volume English edition of his diaries, a collection of critical and biographical studies, a guide to research, two readings of the operas, as well as compiling and introducing editions of the complete libretti and non-operatic texts, and a selection of manuscripts facsimiles). He has also written on the ballets of Ludwig Minkus and compiled a series of scores on the Romantic Ballet.
Ludwig Minkus (23 March 1826–7 December 1917) grew up in Vienna where he hoped to establish a reputation as a violinist and composer. In 1853 he emigrated to St Petersburg where he became the conductor and solo violinist of the private orchestra of Prince Nikolai Yusupov. In 1861 he became violin soloist and, a year later, conductor of the Moscow Bolshoi Orchestra, and began fruitful working friendship with the choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon. In 1869 the choreographer Marius Petipa invited Minkus to compose the music for his Don Quixote for the Bolshoi Theatre. The ballet was an enormous success and led to Minkus being appointed Official Composer to the Imperial Russian Ballet—a position he held until it was discontinued in 1886. Minkus left Russia and returned to Vienna in the summer of 1891, where he lived in semi retirement until his death in 1917. He wrote music for more than twenty ballets, with Don Quixote (1869), La Bayadère (1877) and his interpolations for Paquita (1881) the most famous.
Léo Delibes (21 February 1836–16 January 1891) studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire under Adolphe Adam, and entered the Opéra as second chorus master in 1865. Although an organist, he excelled initially as a composer of lighter works, writing sparkling operettas in the style of his teacher. The first of them, Deux sous de charbon, was written for the Folies Nouvelles in 1856, when he was just 19. Delibes’s contribution to the score of La Source (1866), his first essay at ballet music, brought him immediate attention. His career culminated in equally successful music for ballet and opera—especially the famous Lakmé (1883), the story of the love of a British officer and the daughter of a Brahmin priest in mid 19th-century India. His ballet music was much admired by other composers—with Coppélia (1870), based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Sylvia (1876), a Classical subject, the most famous works of his maturity.
Robert Ignatius Letellier has specialized in the music and literature of the Romantic Period. He has studied the work of Giacomo Meyerbeer (a four-volume English edition of his diaries, a collection of critical and biographical studies, a guide to research, two readings of the operas, as well as compiling and introducing editions of the complete libretti and non-operatic texts, and a selection of manuscripts facsimiles). He has also written on the ballets of Ludwig Minkus and compiled a series of scores on the Romantic Ballet.
