(I. A.)
HALÉVY, JACQUES FRANÇOIS FROMENTAL ÉLIE (1799-1862), French composer, was born on the 27th of May 1799, at Paris, of a Jewish family. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Berton and Cherubini, and in 1819 gained the grand prix de Rome with his cantata Herminie. In accordance with the conditions of his scholarship he started for Rome, where he devoted himself to the study of Italian music, and wrote an opera and various minor works. In 1827 his opera L’Artisan was performed at the Théâtre Feydeau in Paris, apparently without much success. Other works of minor importance, and now forgotten, followed, amongst which Manon Lescaut, a ballet, produced in 1830, deserves mention. In 1834 the Opéra-Comique produced Ludovic, the score of which had been begun by Hérold and had been completed by Halévy. In 1835 Halévy composed the tragic opera La Juive and the comic opera L’Éclair, and on these works his fame is mainly founded. The famous air of Eléazar and the anathema of the cardinal in La Juive soon became popular all over France. L’Éclair is a curiosity of musical literature. It is written for two tenors and two soprani, without a chorus, and displays the composer’s mastery over the most refined effects of instrumentation and vocalization in a favourable light. After these two works he wrote numerous operas of various genres, amongst which only La Reine de Chypre, a spectacular piece analyzed by Wagner in one of his Paris letters (1841), and La Tempesta, in three acts, written for Her Majesty’s theatre, London (1850), need be mentioned. In addition to his productive work Halévy also rendered valuable services as a teacher. He was professor at the Conservatoire from 1827 till his death—some of the most successful amongst the younger composers in France, such as Gounod, Victor Massé and Georges Bizet, the author of Carmen, being amongst his pupils. He was maestro al cembalo at the Théâtre Italien from 1827 to 1829; then director of singing at the Opera House in Paris until 1845, and in 1836 he succeeded Reicha at the Institut de France. Halévy also tried his hand at literature. In 1857 he became permanent secretary to the Académie des Beaux Arts, and there exists an agreeable volume of Souvenirs et portraits from his pen. He died at Nice, on the 17th of March 1862.
HALÉVY, LUDOVIC (1834-1908), French author, was born in Paris on the 1st of January 1834. His father, Léon Halévy (1802-1883), was a clever and versatile writer, who tried almost every branch of literature—prose and verse, vaudeville, drama, history—without, however, achieving decisive success in any. His uncle, J. F. Fromental E. Halévy (q.v.), was for many years associated with the opéra; hence the double and early connexion of Ludovic Halévy with the Parisian stage. At the age of six he might have been seen playing in that Foyer de la danse with which he was to make his readers so familiar, and, when a boy of twelve, he would often, of a Sunday night, on his way back to the College Louis le Grand, look in at the Odéon, where he had free admittance, and see the first act of the new play. At eighteen he joined the ranks of the French administration and occupied various posts, the last being that of secrétaire-rédacteur to the Corps Législatif. In that capacity he enjoyed the special favour and friendship of the famous duke of Morny, then president of that assembly. In 1865 Ludovic Halévy’s increasing popularity as an author enabled him to retire from the public service. Ten years earlier he had become acquainted with the musician Offenbach, who was about to start a small theatre of his own in the Champs Élysées, and he wrote a sort of prologue, Entrez, messieurs, mesdames, for the opening night. Other little productions followed, Ba-ta-clan being the most noticeable among them. They were produced under the pseudonym of Jules Servières. The name of Ludovic Halévy appeared for the first time on the bills on the 1st of January 1856. Soon afterwards the unprecedented run of Orphée aux enfers, a musical parody, written in collaboration with Hector Crémieux, made his name famous. In the spring of 1860 he was commissioned to write a play for the manager of the Variétés in conjunction with another vaudevillist, Lambert Thiboust. The latter having abruptly retired from the collaboration, Halévy was at a loss how to carry out the contract, when on the steps of the theatre he met Henri Meilhac (1831-1897), then comparatively a stranger to him. He proposed to Meilhac the task rejected by Lambert Thiboust, and the proposal was immediately accepted. Thus began a connexion which was to last over twenty years, and which proved most fruitful both for the reputation of the two authors and the prosperity of the minor Paris theatres. Their joint works may be divided into three classes: the opérettes, the farces, the comedies. The opérettes afforded excellent opportunities to a gifted musician for the display of his peculiar humour. They were broad and lively libels against the society of the time, but savoured strongly of the vices and follies they were supposed to satirize. Amongst the most celebrated works of the joint authors were La Belle Hélène (1864), Barbe Bleue (1866), La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein (1867), and La Périchole (1868). After 1870 the vogue of Parody rapidly declined. The decadence became still more apparent when Offenbach was no longer at hand to assist the two authors with his quaint musical irony, and when they had to deal with interpreters almost destitute of singing powers. They wrote farces of the old type, consisting of complicated intrigues, with which they cleverly interwove the representation of contemporary whims and social oddities. They generally failed when they attempted comedies of a more serious character and tried to introduce a higher sort of emotion. A solitary exception must be made in the case of Frou-frou (1869), which, owing perhaps to the admirable talent of Aimée Desclée, remains their unique succès de larmes.
Meilhac and Halévy will be found at their best in light sketches of Parisian life, Les Sonnettes, Le Roi Candaule, Madame attend Monsieur, Toto chez Tata. In that intimate association between the two men who had met so opportunely on the perron des variétés, it was often asked who was the leading partner. The question was not answered until the connexion was finally severed and they stood before the public, each to answer for his own work. It was then apparent that they had many gifts in common. Both had wit, humour, observation of character. Meilhac had a ready imagination, a rich and whimsical fancy; Halévy had taste, refinement and pathos of a certain kind. Not less clever than his brilliant comrade, he was more human. Of this he gave evidence in two delightful books, Monsieur et Madame Cardinal (1873) and Les Petites Cardinal, in which the lowest orders of the Parisian middle class are faithfully described. The pompous, pedantic, venomous Monsieur Cardinal will long survive as the true image of sententious and self-glorifying immorality. M. Halévy’s peculiar qualities are even more visible in the simple and striking scenes of the Invasion, published soon after the conclusion of the Franco-German War, in Criquette (1883) and L’Abbé Constantin (1882), two novels, the latter of which went through innumerable editions. Zola had presented to the public an almost exclusive combination of bad men and women; in L’Abbé Constantin all are kind and good, and the change was eagerly welcomed by the public. Some enthusiasts still maintain that the Abbé will rank permanently in literature by the side of the equally chimerical Vicar of Wakefield. At any rate, it opened for M. Ludovic Halévy the doors of the French Academy, to which he was elected in 1884.
Halévy remained an assiduous frequenter of the Academy, the Conservatoire, the Comédie Française, and the Society of Dramatic Authors, but, when he died in Paris on the 8th of May 1908, he had produced practically nothing new for many years. His last romance, Kari Kari, appeared in 1892.
The Théâtre of MM. Meilhac and Halévy was published in 8 vols. (1900-1902).
HALFPENNY, WILLIAM, English 18th-century architectural designer—he described himself as “architect and carpenter.” He was also known as Michael Hoare; but whether his real name was William Halfpenny or Michael Hoare is uncertain. His books, of which he published a score, deal almost entirely with domestic architecture, and especially with country houses in those Gothic and Chinese fashions which were so greatly in vogue in the middle of the 18th century. His most important publications, from the point of view of their effect upon taste, were New Designs for Chinese Temples, in four parts (1750-1752); Rural Architecture in the Gothic Taste (1752); Chinese and Gothic Architecture Properly Ornamented (1752); and Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1750-1752). These four books were produced in collaboration with John Halfpenny, who is said to have been his son. New Designs for Chinese Temples is a volume of some significance in the history of furniture, since, having been published some years before the books of Thomas Chippendale and Sir Thomas Chambers, it disproves the statement so often made that those designers introduced the Chinese taste into this country. Halfpenny states distinctly that “the Chinese manner” had been “already introduced here with success.” The work of the Halfpennys was by no means all contemptible. It is sometimes distinctly graceful, but is marked by little originality.