1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Guiraud, Ernest

18662061911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 12 — Guiraud, Ernest

GUIRAUD, ERNEST (1837–1892), French composer, was born at New Orleans on the 26th of June 1837. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won the grand prix de Rome. His father had gained the same distinction many years previously, this being the only instance of both father and son obtaining this prize. Ernest Guiraud composed the following operas: Sylvie (1864); Le Kobold (1870), Madame Turlupin (1872), Piccolino (1876), Galante Aventure (1882), and also the ballet Gretna Green, given at the Opéra in 1873. His opera Frédégonde was left in an unfinished condition and was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns. Guiraud, who was a fellow-student and intimate friend of Georges Bizet, was for some years professor of composition at the Conservatoire. He was the author of an excellent treatise on instrumentation. He died in Paris on the 6th of May 1892.