Gustave Doret

Not to be confused with Gustave Doré.
Gustave Doret
Doret in 1940
Born
Gustave Charles Vincent Mathey-Doret

(1866-09-20)20 September 1866
Aigle, Switzerland
Died19 April 1943(1943-04-19) (aged 76)
NationalitySwiss
Occupation(s)Music composer and conductor
Awards Legion of Honour - Knight (1915)

Gustave Doret (20 September 1866 – 19 April 1943) was a Swiss composer and conductor.

Career

Doret was born in 1866 in Aigle, Switzerland. He studied at the Berlin Academy of Music with Joseph Joachim, and then at the Conservatoire de Paris with Théodore Dubois and Jules Massenet. His career as a conductor began in 1894 in Paris, where he led the first performance of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. He was second conductor of the Concerts d'Harcourt from 1893 to 1895 and director of the Opéra-Comique in the 1890s and 1900s. He was also the founder of the Théâtre du Jorat, in Mézières.

His two serious operas, heavily indebted to Massenet, were performed in Paris; his light opera and other stage works were far more popular across French-speaking Europe. In 1914, Doret returned to Switzerland and began studying local popular music and folk music traditions. He also wrote for Swiss newspapers and wrote a memoir, Temps et contretemps, published in 1942.

Most of his output was vocal, and included operas, music theatre pieces, one oratorio, choral music, and more than 300 songs. His only instrumental works were two orchestral pieces, a string quartet, and a piano quintet. His work was part of the music event in the art competition at the 1912 Summer Olympics.[1]

Doret died in 1943 in Lausanne.

Awards

Doret was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour (decree: 17 February 1915).[2]

Works

  • Les Sept paroles du Christ (1895), oratorio
  • Les Armaillis (1900), opera
  • Fête des Vignerons (1905)
  • Aliénor (1910), stage music
  • La Nuit des Quatre Temps (1910), stage music
  • Tell (1914), stage music
  • Fête des Vignerons (1927)
  • La Servante d'Evolène (1937)

References

  1. ^ "Gustave Doret". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Mathey-Doret, Gustave Charles Vincent". National Archives - Léonore Database (in French). France. 13 February 1913. Retrieved 5 August 2021.

Further reading

  • Don Randel, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard, 1996, p. 223
  • Delphine Vincent, "Gustave Doret et le théâtre du Jorat". In: Passé simple, no 52, February 2020, pp. 25-27 (in French)
  • Delphine Vincent (dir.), Mythologies romandes: Gustave Doret et la musique nationale, Berne, 2018 (in French)
  • Gustave Doret in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  • Jacques Tchamkerten: "Gustave Doret". In: Andreas Kotte (ed.): Theaterlexikon der Schweiz – Dictionnaire du théâtre en Suisse. Vol. 1, Chronos, Zürich 2005, ISBN 3034007159, p. 478 (in French) (in German)
  • Andrea Della Corte and Guido M. Gatti: "Gustave Doret". In: Dizionario di musica, Torino, Paravia, 1956, p. 195 (in Italian)