Ernest Guiraud

Ernest Guiraud was born in New Orleans to a French musician who had won the Prix de Rome, and won it himself in 1859. His opera David was staged there in 1853, when he was fifteen. His later operas, Piccolino among them, did modestly; what lasted is his work on other men's scores. He replaced the spoken dialogue of Carmen with sung recitatives for Vienna after Bizet's death, completed and orchestrated Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, and assembled the second L'Arlésienne suite from Bizet's incidental music. He taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire, where Debussy was his pupil and sparring partner.