Emmanuel Bondeville

Biography

Emmanuel Bondeville was a French composer and music administrator, born 29 October 1898 in Rouen, and died 26 November 1987 in Paris. He was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Biography

As a young man he was organist at the church of Saint-Nicaise in Rouen and Notre-Dame in Caen. Bondeville lost both his parents when he was 16, and took on various jobs – organist, bank clerk, translator - to get by. He made his beginnings in music around 1923 writing works for piano, symphonic poems, opéras-comiques and opéras. During this time he also travelled around Europe and worked as an assistant in a music shop. He eventually had lessons in harmony and counterpoint from Jean Déré.
In 1935 he became musical director of the radio stations Radio Tour Eiffel, Radio Paris, Radiodiffusion française then artistic director of Radio Monte-Carlo.
The French Radio was relocated to Marseille but the Vichy government sacked Bondeville because he was not pro-regime; however when the radio returned to Paris in 1943 and Bondeville was asked to take on the musical directorship, he organized festivals of French composers in defiance of Nazi propaganda. He put on the Berlioz Requiem under Munch at the Opéra in November 1943 and a Berlioz festival, followed by events for Lalo and Chabrier in July and ones for Saint-Saëns and Fauré in August.
From 1949 to 1951 Bondeville was director of the Opéra-Comique, followed by a similar position at the Opéra de Paris from 1952 to 1969.
He was married three times, among which to the mezzo-soprano Viorica Cortez, to whom he dedicated his opera Antoine et Cléopâtre, and later to Dominique Plessis (with whom he broadcast programmes entitled ‘Une saison d'opéra’ on France-Inter).

Titles, honours

Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur
Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Grand Officier de l'Ordre national du Mérite
Croix de guerre 1914-1918