Marcel Samuel-Rousseau

Samuel-Rousseau - detail from L. Roosen (photogr) Conservatoire national de musique: Album-photos des classes 1929-30 - Harmonie. Mr S.M. Rousseau Marcel Auguste Louis Samuel-Rousseau (né Rousseau; 18 August 1882 – 11 June 1955) was a French composer, organist, and opera director.

Life and career Born in Paris, he was the son of Samuel Rousseau and later changed his surname to Samuel-Rousseau to reflect this. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1905. He married on 4 March 1907 in the 9me arrondissement. He was the organist at Saint-Séverin from 1919 to 1922 and president of the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM) from 1935 to 1953. For many years he was a professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire and artistic director of the Pathé opera company. He was the father of Prix de Rome laureate Éveline Plicque-Andréani. From 1941 to 1944 he was director of the Paris Opéra. The performances were conducted by Albert Wolff; Yvonne Brothier sang Dilara, and Charles Friant, Narsès. The opera included a Persian dance choreographed by Louise Stichel and danced by Mona Païva. It was revived in 1926 and performed a total of 44 times by the company.

Le bon roi Dagobert, a four-act comédie musicale with words by André Rivoire, based on his 1908 play with the same title, was presented by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Favart beginning on 5 December 1927. Emma Luart sang La Reine, Charles Friant was Dagobert, and Louis Fourestier conducted. The opera was revived in a new production by in 1938, 1939, and 1943, with Vina Bovy as the Queen and Louis Arnoult as Dagobert, by which time it had been performed a total of 72 times by the company.

His one-act opera Kerkeb, with a libretto by Michel Carré (based on a novel by Elissa Rhaïs), was premiered on 6 April 1951 by the Opéra at the Palais Garnier. The title role, a Berber dancer in a harem, was sung by Géori Boué, and Roger Bourdin sang Sid-Haffid. The performances were conducted by Louis Fourestier. The opera was revived in 1956 with Suzanne Sarroca in the title role. The opera had been performed a total of 26 times by the company by its last performance on 12 July 1958.