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Artist
Louis Masson
2+ albums
frenchlate romantic
about
Louis Masson (6 Aug, 1878 - 28 Mar, 1957) was a Conductor, Composer, Theatre director. Born in Étretat in 1878, Louis Masson, son of a singing teacher at the Conservatoire, became a student of Fauré, Vidal and Gédalge at the same school. During his rich musical career, he was a composer, arranger, conductor and theatre director. First director of music at the Casino de Deauville, he regularly conducted the orchestra of the Gaîté-Lyrique. In September 1916, after the premature death of Félix Lagrange, director of the Trianon Lyrique, Masson acquired the theatre on boulevard Rochechouart. He perpetuated the light repertoire there with the permission of the directors of the Opéra-Comique. In 1925, he succeeded Albert Carré and the Isola brothers to take over, with Georges Ricou, the co-direction of this institution. He programmed the old repertoire (Gluck, Hérold), while encouraging lyrical creation and choreographic creation (Florent Schmitt, Jacques Larmanjat, Claude Delvincourt). From 1931, he was the sole director and successively promoted Le Diable amoureux by Roland-Manuel and three works by Darius Milhaud (La Brebis égarée, Le Pauvre matelot and Esther de Carpentras). Sometimes appearing, on the same evening, alongside successes such as Werther or Tosca, these works were shunned by the audience at the Salle Favart and the takings dropped sharply. Forced to lay off staff, Masson resigned in 1932. As a composer, we note various pieces for flute and piano (a slow waltz, an
