Frédéric BARBIER

Born in Metz, this soldier’s son spent most of his childhood in Bourges, where he studied literature with a view to entering the public sector, and took music lessons generously provided by the city’s organist (Henri Darondeau). After the closure of the Ecole d’administration (1848), Barbier set his sights instead on a law degree, but eventually decided on a career in music, encouraged by the success of his one-act operetta Le Mariage de Colombine, premiered in 1852 in Bourges. The next logical step was to move to Paris, where composer Adolphe Adam took him under his wing, giving him private lessons and gaining him entry to the Théâtre-Lyrique, where his opéra comique Une nuit à Séville was premiered in 1855. He composed prolifically from then on until his death, producing numerous works for the leading music halls staging light opera in the French capital: Folies-Nouvelles, Théâtre Déjazet, Folies-Marigny, Bouffes-Parisiens, Folies-Bergères, Eldorado, Café des Ambassadeurs, and Alcazar d’été. Working as conductor at this latter café-concert from 1873, Barbier also composed pieces for ballet and pantomime, songs and piano pieces (original works or arrangements). His works displayed a talent that caused Arthur Pougin to lament, in 1878, “that Monsieur Barbier, who is gifted with an active imagination, who is not lacking in inspiration and knows how to write, has thus frittered away his abilities without benefit to his name, when he probably could have secured a more enviable position by composing with a little less haste and a little less fervour.”