Fromental HALÉVY, Composer. Letter signed as Secrétaire perp - Lot 540

Fromental HALÉVY, Composer. Letter signed as Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris February 20, 1860, to Mr. Charles Ernest BEULÉ, Membre de l'Institut. 1p in-4°: "Monsieur et Cher Confrère. The Académie has received the volume you kindly offered it; "L'Architecture au Siècle de Pisistrate" with the accompanying Atlas. It has ordered that it be deposited in the Library. I have hastened to communicate to the Académie the letter you did me the honor of addressing to me on this occasion...". - Jacques Fromental HALÉVY (1799-1862), elected to Antoine Reicha's chair in 1836, was a pupil of Henri Montan Berton and Etienne-Nicolas Méhul at the Conservatoire, and then, for five years, of Luigi Cherubini, of whom he was the "cherished pupil". In 1819, he was awarded the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for his cantataHerminie. In Rome in 1800, he composed his first operas, including his opéra-comiqueLa Dilettante d'Avignon. In addition to his teaching post at the Conservatoire, he became head of singing at the Théâtre Italien in 1826, then at the Opéra in 1829. In 1828, he was finally commissioned to write an opera. In all, he composed more than thirty. It was in 1835 with La Juive, a five-act opera based on a libretto by Eugène Scribe, that the composer achieved his greatest fame. After assigning him a fugue and counterpoint class in 1833, the Conservatoire entrusted him with a composition class in 1840. Elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1836, he became its perpetual secretary in 1854. The composer's repertoire also includes masses, romances, sonatas and rondos.