Robert Planquette

Jean Robert Planquette, born in Paris on 31 July 1848 and died on 28 January 1903, was a French composer of songs and operettas whose works reached Broadway audiences through productions including The Chimes of Normandy, The Paradise of Mahomet, Les Cloches De Corneville, and Nell Gwyn. The son of a singer, Planquette received his musical education at the Paris Conservatoire but left before completing his studies due to insufficient funds. He subsequently supported himself as a café pianist and composer, and also performed as a tenor singer.

His early compositional output attracted modest attention until his song "Sambre et Meuse," first performed in 1867 by tenor Lucien Fugère, who would later become one of the leading French opera singers of his generation, brought him wider recognition. Several shorter works followed through the early 1870s, including one-act pieces staged at Parisian venues such as the Eldorado and the Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques, before Planquette received his first commission for a full operetta.

In 1876, the director of the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques commissioned Planquette to compose Les Cloches de Corneville. The work premiered in Paris on 19 April 1877 and ran for 480 performances, an exceptional result by the standards of the day. Its London run, beginning in 1878, extended to 708 performances, setting a record for any piece of musical theatre up to that time. A barcarolle from the score, "The Song of the Cabin Boy," was played on violin by W.K.L. Dickson in 1894 during the first known experiment in synchronizing sound and motion pictures, a film now viewable as The Dickson Experimental Sound Film.

Le Chevalier Gaston, produced in 1879, met with little success. The following year brought Les Voltigeurs du 32ième, which enjoyed a long London run in 1887 under the title The Old Guard, and La Cantinière, translated into English as Nectarine but never staged. In 1882, Rip Van Winkle opened at the Comedy Theatre in London, with a libretto adapted by H. B. Farnie from Washington Irving's story, and subsequently played in Paris as Rip, earning international recognition in both productions.

Nell Gwynne, which opened at the Avenue Theatre in London on 7 February 1884, represented a notable instance of a French composer's opera receiving its world premiere in London rather than Paris. The production achieved moderate success in London but failed when staged in Paris under the title La Princesse Colombine. Subsequent works included La Crémaillère in 1885, Surcouf in 1887, which reached London in 1889 as Paul Jones, Captain Thérèse in 1887, La Cocarde Tricolore in 1892, Le Talisman in 1893, Panurge in 1895, and Mam'zelle Quat'sous in 1897. His final operetta, Le Paradis de Mahomet, was left unfinished at his death and completed by Louis Ganne, receiving its premiere at the Variétés on 15 May 1906.

Planquette's march Le Régiment de Sambre et Meuse gained additional fame through an arrangement for brass band and has been recorded in its original orchestral version by the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler, appearing on the RCA Living Stereo release Marches in Hi-Fi. The march is also the tune performed by the Ohio State University Marching Band during their Script Ohio formation.