Alexandre Luigini

Alexandre Luigini (Clément Léon Joseph Luigini) was born in Lyon on 9 March 1850 and died in Paris on 29 July 1906. A violinist, conductor and composer, he belonged to a generation of French musicians trained in the world of provincial and capital theatres. His father, Joseph Luigini, had been born in Italy and adopted French nationality; he also conducted orchestras in Lyon and Paris, which gave the young Alexandre a family environment rooted in stage practice.

Luigini won the second prize for violin at the Paris Conservatoire in 1869 and, that same year, became conductor of the orchestra of the Grand Théâtre de Lyon, a post he held in a permanent capacity from 1877. During his Lyon years he was part of the city's conservatoire and founded the Concerts Bellecour and the Concerts du Conservatoire. In 1897 he joined the Opéra-Comique in Paris as conductor.

As a composer he devoted himself chiefly to ballet, with works such as Ballet égyptien, Ange et Démon, and a Russian ballet included in Meyerbeer's L'étoile du nord. His light orchestral music, such as Fête arabe or Carnaval turc, and his two operas, Les caprices de Margot and Faublas, complete a catalogue that also includes string quartets and chamber works. His legacy is that of a sound working musician whose activity was more provincial and theatrical than concerned with the great repertoire, although the dates of some of his ballets are not known with certainty.