Biography
Gustave Charpentier was born on 25 June 1860 in Dieuze in Lorraine and grew up in Tourcoing, where he received his first violin lessons. From 1880 he studied at the Paris Conservatoire, taking violin with Lambert Massart, harmony with Émile Pessard and composition with Jules Massenet. In 1887 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata 'Didon' and subsequently spent several years at the Villa Medici in Rome. His opera 'Louise' became a resounding success at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1900, a triumph he could not repeat with its sequel 'Julien' (1913). In 1902 he founded the Conservatoire populaire Mimi Pinson to provide free musical education to working-class women, and in 1912 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Charpentier died on 18 February 1956 in Paris.
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