Alfred RABUTEAU

Alfred Rabuteau, whose real name was Victor-Alfred Pelletier, attended the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied harmony with François Bazin and counterpoint, fugue and composition with Ambroise Thomas. While earning his living as a violinist at the Théâtre Déjazet, he won the first Grand Prix de Rome in 1868 with his cantata Daniel. Le Théâtre illustré applauded the young composer whose “musical thought is most often very clear and perfectly suited to the passions of the libretto”. During his stay at the Villa Medici, he composed a Sonata for cello and piano, the overture Le Jugement de Dieu and the oratorio Le Passage de la mer Rouge (premiered in Paris in 1874), from which he drew a symphonic suite. Besides his chamber works, a few symphonic pieces (including the diptych Rome et Naples premiered by Édouard Colonne in 1874), songs and piano pieces, he wrote mainly for the theatre (his daughter Jane would become a singer): L’École des pages (1882), Isabelle (1884), Parfum de race (1891) and Le Vendéen (1891). He collaborated with Gabriel Pierné on the incidental music to Les Joyeuses Commères de Paris, a “fantasy” written by Catulle Mendès and Georges Courteline (1892). Also active in the educational field, he was one of the founding members of the École Classique de Musique et de Déclamation. In 1900, he took part in the tenth Musical Competition of the City of Paris (which was won by Tournemire) with a drame lyrique that he had completed in 1893: Florizel et Perdita, based on Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale. Health problems led him to settle in Nice, where he died, almost forgotten, in 1916.