Lecocq, Charles

▪ French composer

born June 3, 1832, Paris

died October 24, 1918, Paris

      one of the principal French composers of operettas after Offenbach (Offenbach, Jacques), especially known for his La Fille de Madame Angot.

      Lecocq studied at the Paris Conservatoire under François Bazin, Fromental Halévy, and François Benoist. His first operetta, Le Docteur Miracle (1857), written for a competition organized by Offenbach, shared the prize with a setting of the same libretto by Bizet. He produced six one-act operettas, but his first real success was the three-act Fleur de thé (1868). Eleven operettas followed, including Les Cent Vierges (1872) and La Fille de Madame Angot (1872). The last was performed in Europe and the U.S., and in 1947 some of the music was arranged by Gordon Jacob as a ballet, Mam'zelle Angot. Lecocq also wrote polkas, mazurkas, schottisches, and other dances and five volumes of songs. He kept alive the spirit of Offenbach in the French operetta, adapting it to the more sober style of light opera prevalent after the Franco-German war.

* * *