Charles-Gaston Levadé (3 January 1869 – 27 October 1948)Archives numérisées de l'état civil de Paris, birth certificate number 9/23/1869, with marginal mention of death was a French composer.
A pupil of Jules Massenet, Grand Prix de Rome in 1863, Levadé wrote chamber music, melodies, religious music, drama and opéras comiques. He was very successful in his time.
Life Levadé was born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. At the age of 13 he entered the Conservatoire de Paris where he followed the solfège classes of Albert Lavignac, Charles de Bériot, Georges Mathias, and Auguste Bazille. A few years later, at Lavignac's that he met Erik Satie who dedicated one of his Ogives and one of his Gymnopédies to him.
He was a student of Jules Massenet, of whom he wrote in 1911, in the Annales politiques et littéraires,Annales politiques et littéraires 17 December 1911:
After Massenet's resignation in 1896, Levadé attended the classes of Charles Lenepveu and obtained the Grand Prix de Rome in 1899 with his cantata Callirhoe to a text by Eugène Adénis.
In 1895 he produced a Japanese pantomime: Coeur de magots, a "sketch" given at the "Grand Guignol" in 1897, and a "salon opera" in 1903. He wrote a three-act opera: The Heretics, a lyrical tragedy on a poem by Ferdinand Hérold. In 1908, he composed the music for La Courtisane de Corinthe, to a text by Michel Carré and Paul Bilhaud which was staged in 1908 by Sarah Bernhardt, then Les Fiançailles de l'ami Fritz, after Erckmann-Chatrian in 1919.
Other musical adaptations of literary texts include Le Capitaine Fracasse, libretto by Émile Bergerat and Michel Carré, lyrical comedy from Théophile Gautier's eponymous novel and in 1929, La Peau de chagrin, lyrical comedy in four acts after Balzac, libretto by Pierre Decourcelle and Michel Carré, then La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque, lyrical comedy in four acts based on the novel by Anatole France in 1934.
Levadé was also a composer of popular songs (J'ai cueilli le lys, 1912), symphonic music (Prélude religieux for string orchestra), lullaby for piano and violin and religious music: Prélude religieux for organ, Agnus Dei for choir, Psaume CXIII for solo, choir and orchestra.
Levadé died in Cabourg on 27 October 1948.
Selected works
Antigone, cantata, 1893 Clarisse Harlowe, cantata, 1895 Cœur de Magots, Japanese pantomime, 1895 Mélusine, cantata, 1896 Hortense, couche-toi ! by Georges Courteline, Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, 1897 Callirhoé, cantata, 1899 L’amour d’Héliodora, Salon Opera, 1903 Les Hérétiques, poem by Ferdinand Hérold, à Béziers,Le Petit Méridional, 29 August 1905, "La deuxième des Hérétiques aux Arènes de Béziers" Archives municipales de Béziers, 2 R 9: Dossier du Comité d'organisation. libretto by Ferdinand Hérold. 1905 Stage music for La Courtisane de CorintheLa Courtisane de Corinthe on Bibliothèque nationale de France by Michel Carré and Paul Bilhaud, 1908 Les Fiançailles de l'ami Fritz by Jean-Marc d’Anthoine, 1919 La Rôtisserie de la reine Pédauque, adapted by , 1920 Caroles de Noël, opera, 1923 Sophie, opéra comique after Louis Tiercelin, Georges Docquois and Alfred Aubert, 1923 La Peau de chagrin, lyrical comedy based on Honoré de Balzac's La Peau de chagrin by Pierre Decourcelle and Michel Carré, 1929 Le Capitaine Fracasse, comedy by Émile Bergerat and Michel Carré based on the novel of the same name by Théophile Gautier Prélude religieux for string orchestre Danses alsaciennes for Grand Orchestra Feuilles d’album for Grand Orchestra Arrichino for piano Berceuse for piano and violin Prélude religieux for pipe organ Agnus Dei for Choir Psaume CXIII for Soli, Choir and Orchestra
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