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You will find below, as well as a text signed
by Paul Prévost, a reference bar directing
you to related pages. In each of them you will find
a list of compositions referring to a chosen
subject. Furthermore, by choosing "Operas", you
will have access to a complete summary of
these.
More than 600
works are listed on this site!
Nevertheless, Gounod's production being so
impressive, it's possible that we've missed some,
in which case, thank you to notify me by e-mail, so
that I can add them to the list.
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" In the first years of the musical career ( 1840-1850 ),
Gounod was fascinated by religious music. Seduced by the
palestrinian purity he discovers in Rome, tempted by the
ecclesiastical dress, it is in music for the mass that he
forges his first weapons as a composer. He discovers the
lyric theater at the dawn of the Second Empire (Sapho, in
1851), time during which he will compose his biggest
successes for the scene. The fall of the regime - and the
consequences on the private life of the composer - coincides
with the drying up of his lyric inspiration. He returns then
to his first source of inspiration and gives his best
oratorios " .... " Most of the commentators picture Gounod
as one of the main representative of the musical style of
the Second Empire, and it cannot be denied by chronology.
The extreme refinement of his language, his concern for
details, the eclecticism of his inspiration, a melodic and
harmonious sweetness, sometimes devoid of firmness, relates
rather well to the aesthetic criteria, in favour of which
current historians try to define arts under Napoleon III's
administration "
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Paul Prévost
Maître de conférences at the
University of Metz
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