Léon Vasseur

Félix Augustin Joseph Vasseur, known as Léon Vasseur (28 May 1844 – 25 May 1917), was a French composer, organist and conductor. While working as a cathedral organist, he turned to composing operettas and soon had a hit with La timbale d'argent. He wrote another thirty operettas but never repeated that early success. He also composed church music including two settings of the mass.

Biography Vasseur was born in Bapaume in north-east France, the son of Augustin Vasseur, the local church organist and choirmaster. After studying music with his father, Vasseur enrolled at the age of 12 as a student at the École Niedermeyer, the school of church music in Paris, He studied under Pierre-Louis Dietsch (harmony), Georges Schmitt (organ and improvisation) and Camille Saint-Saëns (piano), and won the school's top prizes as a pianist and organist.

In 1870 after eight years at Saint-Symphorien, Vasseur succeeded Marie-Louise Leroi-Godefroy as organist of Notre-Dame de Versailles, the former royal parish church of the kings of France. Vasseur never equalled the popularity of La timbale d'argent, but his series of usually risqué operettas achieved modest success at a variety of theatres in Paris and elsewhere. The most notable of these include La cruche cassée (1875), Le droit du seigneur (1878) and Le voyage de Suzette (1889). He did not abandon sacred music completely. In 1877 his Hymne à Sainte-Cécile, for soprano, organ and orchestra, was given at Versailles Cathedral and was well received by the public and critics. He retired from the theatre in 1897.

Vasseur was twice married, first to Caroline Chaiselat and then to Ernestine Cavier.

Vasseur died in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine) at the age of 72.

Works Vasseur's one-act operettas are:

His three-act operettas are:

Other stage works, including ballet-pantomimes are:

Vasseur's church works include, L'Office divin (a collection of masses, offertories, antiphons, etc.); Hymne à Ste Cécile, for soprano, organ and orchestra; 2 masses; Magnificat.