Biography
Benjamin Godard was born in Paris in 1849 and received violin lessons as a child, including from Henri Vieuxtemps, before studying composition with Henri Reber at the Paris Conservatoire. He first made his name as a violinist and chamber composer but turned increasingly to opera and song; in 1878 he won the Prix de la Ville de Paris for his dramatic symphony Le Tasse. His greatest success came in 1888 with the opera Jocelyn after Alphonse de Lamartine, whose second-act berceuse became far more popular than the opera itself. From 1887 Godard taught at the Paris Conservatoire and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1889; an outspoken opponent of Richard Wagner, he died of tuberculosis in Cannes in 1895 at the age of 45.
On Stagelog
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