Alexandre Charles Lecocq (3 June 183224 October 1918) was a French composer, known for his opérettes and opéras comiques. He became the most prominent successor to Jacques Offenbach in this sphere, and enjoyed considerable success in the 1870s and early 1880s, before the changing musical fashions of the late 19th century made his style of composition less popular. His few serious works include the opera Plutus (1886), which was not a success, and the ballet Le cygne (1899). His only piece to survive in the regular modern operatic repertory is his 1872 opéra comique La fille de Madame Angot (Mme Angot's Daughter). Others of his more than forty stage works receive occasional revivals.
After study at the Paris Conservatoire, Lecocq shared the first prize with Georges Bizet in an operetta-writing contest organised in 1856 by Offenbach. Lecocq's next successful composition was an opéra-bouffe, Fleur-de-Thé (Tea-flower), twelve years later. His comic operas Les cent vierges (The Hundred Virgins, 1872), La fille de Madame Angot (1872) and Giroflé-Girofla (1874) were all successes and established his international reputation. Critics remarked on the elegance of the music in Lecocq's best works. His other popular pieces in the 1870s included La petite mariée (The Little Bride, 1875) and Le petit duc (The Little Duke, 1878). Although a few of his works in the early 1880s were well-received, and he continued composing for more than two decades afterwards, his later works never achieved the same admiration.
Life and career
Early years
Lecocq was born in Paris, the son of a copyist at the Commercial Court of the Seine. His father was not highly paid, but supported a family of five children. As a boy Lecocq suffered from a hip condition that obliged him to use crutches throughout his life. His first musical instrument was the flageolet; a music teacher, discerning his talent, persuaded his parents to buy a piano. By the age of 16 Lecocq was giving private piano lessons which funded the lessons he himself was taking in harmony.
He was admitted into the Paris Conservatoire in 1849, studying harmony under François Bazin, organ with François Benoist and composition with Fromental Halévy. Among his classmates were Georges Bizet and Camille Saint-Saëns; the latter became his lifelong friend. At the end of his second year he gained the second prize in counterpoint and was premier accessit in Benoist's organ class. He thought little of Halévy as a teacher, and was not inspired to pursue the top musical prize, the Prix de Rome. He would not, in the event, have been able to do so, because in 1854 he had to leave the Conservatoire prematurely to help support his parents, by giving lessons and playing for dance classes.
First success
At the time when Lecocq left the Conservatoire, the genre of popular musical theatre known as opérette was becoming popular. It had been introduced by the composer Hervé and its principal exponent was Jacques Offenbach, who presented his works at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens from 1855. In 1856 he organised an open competition for aspiring composers. A jury of French composers and playwrights including Daniel Auber, Halévy, Ambroise Thomas, Charles Gounod and Eugène Scribe considered 78 entries; the five short-listed entrants were all asked to set a libretto, Le docteur miracle, written by Ludovic Halévy and Léon Battu. The joint winners were Bizet and Lecocq. Richard Traubner comments in his history of operetta that Bizet's version has survived better than Lecocq's, which is forgotten. Bizet became, and remained, a devoted friend of Offenbach; Lecocq and Offenbach took a dislike to one another, and their rivalry in later years was not altogether friendly. Lecocq's setting of Le Docteur Miracle, was given eleven performances at Offenbach's theatre, but this early success was followed by eleven years of obscurity and routine work as a teacher, accompanist and répétiteur.
Between 1859 and 1866 Lecocq wrote six one-act works, which were presented at the Folies-Nouvelles, the Théâtre des Folies-Marigny, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal and elsewhere, without making any great impression. The composer's fortunes improved when he was engaged by Fromental Halévy's nephew William Busnach at the Théâtre de l'Athénée, for which Lecocq wrote the music for his first two-act piece, an opéra-bouffe called L’amour et son carquois (Cupid and His Quiver) presented in January 1868. In April of that year he had his first substantial success with Fleur-de-Thé (Tea-flower) a three-act bouffe playing on the fashionable interest in the Far East. The piece was successfully given in London and New York in 1871.