Émile Paladilhe

Émile Paladilhe (3 June 1844 – 6 January 1926) was a French composer of the late romantic period. He is best known for his opera Patrie!, which premiered successfully at the Paris Opera. Biography Émile Paladilhe was born in Montpellier. He was a musical child prodigy, and moved from his home in the south of France to Paris to begin his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris at age 10. He became an accomplished pianist, and was the youngest winner of the Prix de Rome, three years after Bizet, in 1860. For a time Galli-Marié was his lover, and she helped create some of his works. Paladilhe married the daughter of the librettist Ernest Legouvé. He formed a friendship with the elderly Charles Gounod. Works He wrote a number of compositions for the stage, a symphony, over a hundred mélodies, piano works, and a wide range of sacred music, including cantatas, motets, masses, chorales, and a noted oratorio, Les Saintes-Marie de la mer. His opera Patrie! of 1886 was his greatest success, and was one of the last grand operas to premiere at the Paris Opéra. It was a piece d’occasion, created for a gala in honour of the French colony in Monaco, but had a Flemish-nationalist theme. The libretti