Marie Félicie Grandval
Born: 21 January 1828, Saint-Rémy-des-Monts, France
Died: 15 January 1907, Paris, France
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC RECORDINGS SOURCES
Marie Grandval’s aristocratic and talented family provided her the means to begin her musical studies at age 6. With Friedrich Flotow, a family friend and composer who oversaw her work, Grandval wrote her first compositions as a teenager. She also studied with Chopin. Grandval performed in and composed for Parisian salons, especially after her marriage to the Vicomte de Grandval, with whom she had two children.
A prolific composer, Grandval wrote musical genres including operas, choral works, songs for voice and piano, an oratorio, 3 symphonies, 2 concertos, piano solos, and 10 chamber works. She grew her compositional skills after studying for two years with Camille Saint-Saëns. Social norms pressured Grandval to compose her music under one of her several pen names: Clémence Valgrand, Maria Felicita de Reiset, and Maria Reiset de Tesier. Under the pseudonym, Caroline Blangy, her one-act operetta, Le sou de Lis, was published in 1859 and performed at the Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris. Her opera, Piccolino, was performed at Théâtre Impérial Italien, in Paris, in 1868.
Grandval wrote 9 dramatic works including the grand opera, Mazeppa, praised by critics in 1892, after its premiere. Her earlier oratorio, La fille de Jaïre, won the Concours Rossini prize and was performed at the Paris Conservatory in 1881. Two of her larger works were dedicated to Georges Bizet, her Messe and Les fiances de Rosa, and are located at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Grandval was respected by many and received many positive reviews for her music, which she continued writing until her death. Most of her compositions have been published.