Robert Planquette

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Robert Planquette (July 31, 1850 - January 28, 1903), French composer of songs and operettas, was born in Paris.

[edit] Life and career

The son of a singer, Planquette was educated at the Paris Conservatoire. He did not finish his studies, preferring to exploit his talents as a café pianist and tenor. A few romances brought less fame than did his song, "Sambre et Meuse", first sung in 1867 by Lucien Fougère, who went on to be the foremost French opera singer of his day.

In 1876, the director of the Folies Dramatiques gave Planquette a commission to compose his first operetta, Les Cloches de Corneville. It opened in Paris in 1877, running for an extremely successful 480 performances, and then enjoyed an astonishing London run, beginning in 1878, of a record breaking 708 performances. Planquette's music has been praised for its pathos and romantic feeling. Le Chevalier Gaston was produced in 1879 with little success. In 1880 came Les Voltigeurs du 32ieme which had a long run in London in 1887 as The Old Guard, and La Cantiniére, which was translated into English as Nectarine, though never produced.

In 1882 Rip Van Winkle was produced in London and subsequently given in Paris as Rip, in both cases with great success. The libretto is an adaptation by H. B. Farnie of Washington Irving’s famous tale. In 1884 the phenomenon of an opera by a French composer being produced in London previously to being heard in Paris was repeated in Nell Gwynne, which was modestly successful, but failed when produced in Paris as La Princesse Colombine. It was followed by La Crémaillere (Paris, 1885), Surcouf (Paris, 1887; London, as Paul Jones, 1889), Captain Thérése (London, 1887), La Cocarde tricolore (Paris, 1892), Le Talisman (Paris, 1892), Panurge (Paris, 1895) and Mam'zelle Quat'sous (Paris, 1897).

Another Planquette composition, the march Le régiment de Sambre et Meuse, has achieved fame in an arrangement for brass band; it is the tune used by the Ohio State University Marching Band when performing their famed Script Ohio formation. The original orchestral version has been recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler and appears on the RCA Living Stereo CD Marches in Hi-Fi.