Paul Bastide

Paul Bastide was born on 6 April 1879 in Quimper (France). Very little appears to be documented about Bastide’s childhood, and his documented higher education began at the University of Aix-en-Provence, after which he pursued professional musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris. There he studied with Emile Pessard (harmony) and Jules Massenet (composition). Bastide distinguished himself particularly in harmony, winning a first prize in that subject.
Paul Bastide entered professional musical life at a remarkably young age. In 1898, when he was only nineteen, he was already working in Marseille as a "chef de chant" at the opera house. His early career soon took him outside France. He acquired experience as a conductor in Cairo and at The Hague, where his own opera Médée was performed in 1911. In 1913 he conducted the first performance of the three-act version of Gustave Doret’s Les Armaillis at the Grand Theatre de Geneve. These engagements established Bastide primarily as a man of the theatre: although he continued to compose throughout his life, conducting and operatic administration were to occupy an increasingly important place in his career.
In 1919 Paul Bastide took charge of the opera house in Strasbourg, which had returned to French administration after the end of German rule in Alsace. He remained musical director of the Strasbourg Opera until 1938. From 1929 to 1939 he also directed the Orchestre Municipal de Strasbourg, the ensemble now known as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, succeeding Joseph Guy Ropartz. At the same time, Bastide developed a particularly close association with Vichy, where, from the 1920s onward, he regularly directed the summer opera seasons at the Grand Casino.
In recognition of his achievements, Paul Bastide was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur in 1928. A further important appointment came in 1932, when he became director of music at the Theatre National de l’Opera-Comique in Paris, a position he held until 1936. There he conducted the French premiere of Franz Lehar’s Frasquita in 1933, the premiere of Felix Fourdrain’s Tout Ank Amon in 1934, and Antoine Mariotte’s Gargantua in 1935.
During the Second World War, Paul Bastide transferred much of his activity to southern France. He became head of lyric broadcasts for the Radiodiffusion Nationale and, from 1941 to 1945, directed the Opera de Marseille. After the liberation of Alsace, he returned to Strasbourg and once again headed the opera from 1945 to 1948. In 1948 Bastide returned to the Opera-Comique in Paris, this time as head of musical studies, a post he retained until 1952.
Paul Bastide died on 10 August 1962 in Paris (France).

Bastide’s own catalogue is dominated by works for the lyric stage. Among his principal compositions are the stage works L’Amour magicien (1903), Medee (1911), Heliodora (1914), Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1921), La Vannina (1926), Œdipe-Roi (1936), Pathelin (1939), Gentil-Bernard ou l’Art d’aimer (1939), La Divine Epopee (1942), and Jeanne d’Arc (1949). He also contributed to the ballet Robinsons blancs (1900) and wrote songs and smaller instrumental or orchestral pieces, among them Lied d’amour (1902), Consolation! (1904), the orchestral march Joyeux allure (1913), and Aspirations!, an intermezzo-waltz (1914).

La divine epopee

In my possession is the autograph piano reduction of "La divine epopee", a poeme lyrique in five acts to a libretto by Charles Hellem and Pol d’Estoc. Bastide composed the work in 1942 during the period in which he was musical director of the Opera de Marseille. The piano reduction was published in Paris by Editions Joubert in 1943. In addition to the autograph manuscript I also own a copy of this published edition.
The world premiere took place at the Opera de Marseille on 25 March 1943. The principal role of Jesus was created by the French tenor Henri Saint-Cricq, while the baritone Valere Blouse sang Pontius Pilate.