Rousseau, Samuel Alexandre

1853

French composer; born at Neuvmaison, Aisne, studied at the Paris Conservatory, winning the Cressent Prize and the second Prize of Rome in 1878. The next year he made his debut as a dramatic composer with Dianorah, a one-act light opera at the Opera Comique. A period of some twelve years elapsed before his next production, Merowig, which took in 891 the prize offered by the city of Paris. The next year he was ap pointed conductor at the Theatre Lyrique. He brought out a third drama, La Cloche du Rhin, at the Opera in the summer of 1898, with moderate success; this work, it is said, suggests Wagner's methods, but falls rather short of their standard. His other compositions are vocal and include a mass and songs.