| A pupil of Leo Delibes at the Conservatory there and won the coveted Prix de Rome for his cantata "Velleda" (1888). After four years of further study in Italy he returned to Paris and focused his attentions on the theatre. Some of Erlanger's works - the music drama "The Polish Jew" (1900) and his songs based on Russian folk poetry - reflected his Jewish heritage, but he was more at home in the lyric-romantic style of Saint-Saens and Bizet. "Aphrodite" (1906), starring soprano Mary Garden, was the most successful of his 10 operas. His swansong, "La Forfaiture" (1921), has the curious distinction of being the first opera based on a motion picture ("The Cheat", 1915). He was the father of Philippe Erlanger, who founded the Cannes Film Festival in 1939. |
