Victor Roger

Victor Roger (22 July 1853 – 2 December 1903) was a French composer. He is best known for his operettas, particularly the lighter kind known as the “vaudeville-opérette”. His thirty theatre works, composed between 1880 and 1902, also include pantomimes and ballets. His best-known piece, Les vingt-huit jours de Clairette, has remained in the repertory of French companies. Biography Roger was born in Montpellier, in the south of France, the son of a musician. After studying at the École Niedermeyer he began his career composing songs and operettas for the Eldorado music hall. In 1886, he had a success with Joséphine vendue par ses soeurs, a parody of Méhul’s biblical opera, Joseph et ses frères. He followed this with Les vingt-huit jours de Clairette (1892), an operetta on a military theme, in the tradition of the earlier operetta composer Hervé. It ran initially for 236 performances and was revived in 1900, 1901, 1903, 1908, 1914, 1920, 1921 and 1925, Les vingt-huit jours de Clairette was by far Roger’s greatest success, and so it has tended to eclipse his other works, some of which enjoyed considerable popularity initially. L’auberge du Tohu-Bohu, which followed in 1897, was anothe