Victorin de Joncières

Félix-Ludger Rossignol (12 April 1839 – 26 October 1903), known as Victorin de Joncières , was a French composer and music critic.

Biography Son of a political writer and editor of La Patrie and Constitutionel, he was born at Paris, and his first musical lessons were from aunts. Leaving the Lycée Bonaparte at 16, he decided to study to be a painter, entering the studio of Picot. However, Joncières kept up his musical interest and had a short opéra comique performed by students of the Conservatoire de Paris, and was advised to abandon art and take up music. He entered the Conservatoire and followed the classes of Simon Leborne in fugue and counterpoint. However, after hearing one of Richard Wagner's first concerts in the French capital, he had a disagreement with the professors, and in 1860, abandoned his studies to devote himself to composition.

His violin concerto was played at the Conservatoire in 1870 by Jules Danbé, and a Symphonie romantique at the Concert national in 1873. ), penning biting criticisms of earlier opéra comique composers and of Berlioz.

Although Joncières presented his candidature for the Institut de France he was refused. He died in his native city of Paris.

Works Stage Incidental music for Hamlet, 1864 Sardanapale (words by Henry Becque after Byron), Théâtre Lyrique, 8 February 1867 Les Derniers jours de Pompéi, Théâtre Lyrique, 21 September 1869 Dimitri (words by de Bornier, Silvestre and Carvalho after Schiller), Théâtre de la Gaîté, 5 May 1876 La Reine Berthe (words by Jules Barbier), Opéra de Paris, 27 December 1878 Le Chevalier Jean, (words by Gallet and Blau), Opéra-Comique, 11 March 1885 Le Baron Frick (Ernest Depré, Clairville), operetta in 1 act (1885), written in collaboration with Georges Pfeiffer, Ernest Guiraud, and Francis Thomé Lancelot, (words by Gallet and Blau), Paris Opéra, 7 February 1900

Orchestral music Violin Concerto, Paris, 12 December 1869 Symphonie romantique, Paris, 9 March 1873 La Mer, ode symphonique, 1881