Biography
Ernest Guiraud was born on 23 June 1837 in New Orleans and studied piano with Antoine François Marmontel and composition with Fromental Halévy at the Paris Conservatoire from 1853. He won the Prix de Rome in 1859 and spent several years in Rome, where he became close friends with Georges Bizet. From 1876 he taught harmony, and from 1880 composition, at the Paris Conservatoire, numbering Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas and Erik Satie among his students. He became best known for completing works by other composers: he wrote the recitatives still often used in performances of Bizet's 'Carmen' and finished Offenbach's unfinished opera 'Les contes d'Hoffmann'. Guiraud died on 6 May 1892 in Paris, before he could complete his own opera 'Frédégonde'.
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