Girard, Narcisse (1797-1860)

Girard, Narcisse

VIOLINIST, CONDUCTOR, COMPOSER, ORCHESTRA LEADER (FRANCE)

BORN 28 Jan 1797, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique - DIED 16 Jan 1860, Paris
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Montmartre Cimetière, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 02)

Narcisse Girard studied the violin under Pierre Baillot and counterpoint under Anton Reicha at the Conservatory in Paris. He also studied in Italy. From 1830 to 1832 he was the conductor of the Opéra Italien. From 1837 to 1846 he was chief conductor at the Opéra Comique. He continued his career at the Paris Opéra. On 30 October 1849 he conducted Mozart's "Requiem" at the funeral service for Chopin.

He was professor of violin at the Conservatory in Paris and among his pupils were Jules Danbé, Charles Lamoureux and Édouard Colonne.

Related persons
• was teacher to Colonne, Édouard
• was pupil to Reicha, Anton

Events

16/4/1849	Premiere of Meyerbeer's "Le prophète" with Pauline Viardot as Fidès. It was performed by the Opera of Paris at the Salle Le Peletier. Jeanne-Anaïs Castellan was Berthe and Gustave-Hippolyte Roger was Jean. Narcisse Girard was the conductor. In the audience were Chopin, Verdi, Théophile Gautier, Delacroix, Ivan Turgenev and Berlioz. It was a great succes and in July it was performed at Covent Garden in London. [Berlioz, Hector][Chopin, Frédéric][Delacroix, Eugène][Gautier, Théophile][Meyerbeer, Giacomo][Verdi, Giuseppe][Viardot-Garcia, Pauline]
30/10/1849	Funeral service for Chopin at the Église de la Madeleine in Paris. According to his last wishes, Mozart's "Requiem" was performed by Jeanne-Anaïs Castellan (soprano) and Pauline Viardot-Garcia (mazzo-soprano). Viardot's voice was reported to be soaring above the chorus and orchestra. They were singing incognito behind a black curtain, because women were forbidden to sing in churches and special permission had to be obtained for this performance. The male singers were Alexis Dupont and Luigi Lablache. The conductor was Narcisse Girard. Lablache had sung the same requiem at Beethoven's funeral in 1827. [Chopin, Frédéric][Viardot-Garcia, Pauline]
16/4/1851	Premiere of Gounod's opera "Sapho" in Paris. It was performed by the Opera of Paris at the Salle Le Peletier. Pauline Viardot was Sapho and Anne Poinsot was Glycère. Narcisse Girard was the conductor. It was performed nine times and considered to be a succes for Gounod. The libretto was written by Émile Augier. [Gounod, Charles François][Viardot-Garcia, Pauline]
18/10/1854	Premiere of Gounod's opera "La nonne sanglante" at the Salle Pelletier in Paris. The opera was perrformed eleven times in October and November 1854. It was poorly received and when opera director Nestor Roqueplan was replaced by François Crosnier the opera was cancelled immediately. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne and was a loose adaption of a scene from the novel "The Monk" by Matthew Lewis. Narcisse Girard was the conductor. Jean-Baptiste Merly played comte Ludorf and Jacques-Alfred Guignot was baron Moldaw. Louis Guéymard was Rudolf's son Rodolphe and Anne Poinsot was Angès. Palmyre Wertheimber was La nonne sanglante. [Gounod, Charles François][Roqueplan, Nestor][Scribe, Eugène]