Roger Désormière

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Roger Désormière (September 13, 1898 - October 25, 1963) was a French conductor. He is well known for having directed one of the earliest, and arguably one of the best, recordings of Debussy's opera Pélleas et Mélisande. This was made in 1941, by which time he had become one of France's most celebrated artists of the podium, thanks largely to his work with Diaghilev's Ballets Suédois and Ballets Russes. He also won considerable fame as a flutist; as an enthusiastic champion of 20th-century repertoire (Messiaen, Satie, Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, and Maurice Duruflé all benefited from his advocacy of their pieces); and, at the other chronological extreme, for his editing and performance of early music (reviving mostly-forgotten compositions by the likes of Couperin, Rameau, and Michel-Richard Delalande). He became director of the Paris Opéra in 1945, having previously filled an analogous position at the Paris Opéra-Comique. While driving in Rome during 1950, he suffered a massive paralytic stroke that ended all his musical activities. Aphasic for the rest of his life, he remained a speechless recluse.