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Désiré Dihau
Désiré Dihau (2 August 1833 – 20 August 1909) was a French bassoonist and composer. He was the bassoonist painted by Edgar Degas in The Orchestra at the Opera () with the cellist Louis-Marie Pilet
Désiré Dihau (2 August 1833 – 20 August 1909) was a French bassoonist and composer. He was the bassoonist painted by Edgar Degas in The Orchestra at the Opera () with the cellist Louis-Marie Pilet seated behind him. Biography Désiré Hippolyte Dihau was born 2 August 1833 in Lille. He studied music at the Conservatory of his hometown and then at the Conservatoire de Paris where he obtained a First prize of bassoon in 1857 and a second one in 1865. He was at the pulpits of the orchestras of the Théâtre-Lyrique and of the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens. He was also a solo bassoon at the Eldorado, the Cirque d’hiver of Paris for the Pasdeloup Orchestra and at the Théâtre du Châtelet for the Concerts Colonne. He is best known for being the bassoonist of the Paris Opera, where he played from July 1, 1862, to December 31, 1889, immortalized by Edgar Degas in the 1870 painting, , Degas also depicted him in other paintings in which were present the musicians of the Salle Le Peletier, in 1872 and both versions, of 1871 and 1876, of the ballet of Robert le Diable. Degas probably met Dihau at the Mère Lefebvre, in Montmartre where artists and musicians gathered. It is Dihau who introduced Degas