1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reyer, Ernest

REYER, ERNEST (1823–), French composer, was born at Marseilles on the 1st of December 1823. At the age of sixteen he went to Algeria, and remained there some years. The outcome of his residence there was a symphonic ode entitled Le Sélam, the musical oriental ism of which had, unluckily for him, already been anticipated by Félicien David in Le Désert, Maître Wolfram, a one-act opera, was produced at the Opéra comique in 1854; and in 1858 Sacuntala, a ballet, at the Opéra. It was the production of La Statue at the Théatre lyrique in 1861 that brought Reyer's name prominently before the public. But Reyer had to wait several years before obtaining a real and permanent success. Erostrate, an opera produced at Baden-Baden in 1862, and given at the Paris Opéra some ten years later, was a failure. The composer had in the meanwhile set to work on Sigurd, the subject of which is the same that inspired Wagner in Siegfried and Gotterddmmerung. It was at last produced in Brussels in 1884, and subsequently brought out at the Paris Opéra. Sigurd is a work of great value, displaying its composer's elevated notions as regards the form of the “ lyrical drama.” Salarnrnbé, founded upon Flaubert's romance, was successfully produced at Brussels in 1890. Gluck, Weber, Berlioz and Wagner exercised most influence over Reyer. As a musical critic (preceding Berlioz in that capacity for the Journal des débats) Reyer was a well-known writer; and he became librarian of the Paris Opéra, and a member of the Institute. His Quarante Ans de musique (with biographical notice by E. Henriot) was published in 1909.