Editing Charles Gounod (section)

==Life and career==

===Early years===

Gounod was born on 17 June 1818 in the [[Latin Quarter, Paris|Latin Quarter]] of Paris, the second son of [[François-Louis Gounod]] (1758–1823) and his wife Victoire, ''née'' Lemachois (1780–1858).<ref name=grove/> François was a painter and art teacher; Victoire was a talented pianist, who had given lessons in her early years.<ref>Gounod, pp. 2–3</ref> The elder son, Louis Urbain (1807–1850), became a successful architect.<ref>Harding, pp. 20–22 and 36</ref> Shortly after Charles's birth François was appointed official artist to the [[Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry|Duc de Berry]], a member of the royal family, and the Gounods' home in Charles's early years was at the [[Palace of Versailles]], where they were allotted an apartment.<ref>Harding, p. 22</ref>

After François's death in 1823, Victoire supported the family by returning to her old occupation as a piano teacher.<ref>Harding, p. 23</ref> The young Gounod attended a succession of schools in Paris, ending with the [[Lycée Saint-Louis]].<ref>Hillemacher, p. 12</ref> He was a capable scholar, excelling in Latin and Greek.<ref name=mt>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3362619 "Charles Gounod"], ''[[The Musical Times]]'', 1 November 1893, pp. 649–650</ref> His mother, the daughter of a magistrate, hoped Gounod would pursue a secure career as a lawyer,<ref>Gounod, pp. 1 and 41</ref> but his interests were in the arts: he was a talented painter and outstandingly musical.<ref name=grove/><ref>Harding, pp. 24–25</ref> Early influences on him, in addition to his mother's musical instruction, were operas, seen at the [[Théâtre-Italien]]: [[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini's]] ''[[Otello (Rossini)|Otello]]'' and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart's]] ''[[Don Giovanni]]''. Of a performance of the latter in 1835 he later recalled, "I sat in one long rapture from the beginning of the opera to its close".<ref>Gounod, p. 39</ref> Later in the same year he heard performances of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven's]] [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|''Pastoral'']] and [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|''Choral'']] symphonies, which added "fresh impulse to my musical ardour".<ref>Gounod, p. 40</ref>

[[File:Gounod-by-Ingres.png|thumb|Gounod aged 22, by [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Dominique Ingres]]|alt=young man, clean shaven, in early 19th-century clothes, sitting at a piano keyboard and looking towards the viewer]]
While still at school Gounod studied music privately with [[Anton Reicha]] – who had been a friend of Beethoven and was described by a contemporary as "the greatest teacher then living"<ref>Tiersot, p. 411</ref> – and in 1836 he was admitted to the [[Conservatoire de Paris]].<ref name=grove/> There he studied composition with [[Fromental Halévy]], [[Henri-Montan Berton|Henri Berton]], [[Jean-François Le Sueur|Jean Lesueur]] and [[Ferdinando Paer]] and piano with [[Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman|Pierre Zimmerman]].<ref>Hillemacher, p. 13; and Harding, pp. 32–33 and 72</ref> His various teachers made only a moderate impression on Gounod's musical development, but during his time at the Conservatoire he encountered [[Hector Berlioz]]. He later said that Berlioz and his music were among the greatest emotional influences of his youth.<ref name=f2>Flynn, p. 2</ref> In 1838, after Lesueur's death, some of his former students collaborated to compose a commemorative [[Mass (music)|mass]]; the [[Agnus Dei (music)|Agnus Dei]] was allocated to Gounod. Berlioz said of it, "The Agnus, for three solo voices with chorus, by M. Gounod, the youngest of Lesueur's pupils, is beautiful – very beautiful. Everything in it is novel and distinguished – melody, modulation, harmony. In this piece M. Gounod has given proof that we may expect everything of him".<ref>''Quoted'' in Tiersot, p. 411</ref>

===Prix de Rome===
In 1839, at his third attempt, Gounod won France's most prestigious musical prize, the [[Prix de Rome]] for composition, for his [[cantata]] ''Fernand''.<ref>Hillemacher, p. 14</ref>{{refn|Earlier winners of the Prix de Rome for music included Berlioz (1830) and [[Ambroise Thomas]] (1832); among later winners were [[Georges Bizet]] (1857), [[Jules Massenet]] (1863) and [[Claude Debussy]] (1884).<ref>[http://www.musimem.com/palmares.htm "Palmarès de tous les lauréats du Prix de Rome en composition musicale"], ''Musica et Memoria''. Retrieved 22 November 2019</ref>|group=n}} In doing so he was surpassing his father: François had taken the second prize in the Prix de Rome for painting in 1783.<ref name=grove>{{harvnb|Huebner|2001}}</ref> The Prix brought the winner two years' subsidised study at the [[Villa Medici|French Institute]] in Rome and a further year in Austria and Germany. For Gounod this not only launched his musical career, but made impressions on him both spiritually and musically that stayed with him for the rest of his life.<ref name=f2/> In the view of the musicologist Timothy Flynn, the Prix, with its time in Italy, Austria and Germany, was "arguably the most significant event in [Gounod's] career".<ref name=f2/> He was fortunate that the director of the institute was the painter [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres|Dominique Ingres]], who had known François Gounod well and took his old friend's son under his wing.<ref>Gounod, pp. 56 and 66–67</ref>{{refn|Ingres discovered Gounod's talent for sketching and said that he would be welcome back to study art at the Institute. Gounod, though pleased, declined to be deflected from his chosen career as a composer.<ref>Gounod, p. 68</ref>|group=n}}
{{multiple image|caption_align=center| align = left| direction = vertical| header_align = center| footer_align = left| image1 = Pauline Viardot.JPG| width1 = 150|alt1=line drawing of young woman in early 19th century dress| caption1 = [[Pauline Viardot]]| image2 = Fannymendelssohn-improved.jpg|alt2=line drawing of young woman in early 19th century dress|width2 = 150| caption2 = [[Fanny Mendelssohn|Fanny Hensel]]}}

Among the artistic notables the composer met in Rome were the singer [[Pauline Viardot]] and the pianist [[Fanny Mendelssohn|Fanny Hensel]], sister of [[Felix Mendelssohn]].<ref>Harding, pp. 42–44</ref> Viardot became of great help to Gounod in his later career, and through Hensel he got to know the music not only of her brother but also of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J.{{space}}S.{{space}}Bach]], whose music, long neglected, Mendelssohn was enthusiastically reviving.<ref>Hendrie, pp. 5–6</ref> Gounod was also introduced to "various masterpieces of German music which I had never heard before".<ref>Gounod, ''quoted'' in Flynn, p. 2</ref> While in Italy, Gounod read [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe| Goethe]]'s [[Goethe's Faust|''Faust'']], and began sketching music for an operatic setting, which came to fruition over the next twenty years.<ref name=f2/> Other music he composed during his three years' scholarship included some of his best-known songs, such as "Où voulez-vous aller?" (1839), "Le Soir" (1840–1842) and "Venise" (1842), and a setting of the [[Mass ordinary]], which was performed at the church of [[San Luigi dei Francesi]] in Rome.<ref name=f2/><ref name=j221/>

In Rome, Gounod found his strong religious impulses increased under the influence of the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] preacher [[Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire|Henri-Dominique Lacordaire]] and he was inspired by paintings in the city's churches.{{sfn|Cooper|1957|p=142}} Unlike Berlioz, who had been unimpressed by the visual arts of Rome when he was at the Institute ten years earlier, Gounod was awed by the work of [[Michelangelo]].<ref>Rushton, p. 206; and Flynn, p. 2</ref> He also came to know and revere the sacred music of [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]], which he described as a musical translation of Michelangelo's art.<ref name=f2/>{{refn|Gounod's biographer [[James Harding (music writer)|James Harding]] (1973) regards Palestrina's influence as key to Gounod's development as a composer; he titles a chapter on the Prix de Rome years "Rome and Palestrina".<ref>Harding, p. 31</ref>|group=n}} The music of some of his own Italian contemporaries did not appeal to him. He severely criticised operas by [[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]], [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]] and [[Saverio Mercadante|Mercadante]], composers he described as merely "vines twisted around the great Rossinian trunk, without its vitality and majesty" and lacking Rossini's spontaneous melodic genius.<ref name=grove/>

For the last year of his Prix de Rome scholarship, Gounod moved to Austria and Germany. At the [[Vienna State Opera|Court Opera]] in Vienna he heard ''[[The Magic Flute]]'' for the first time, and his letters record his joy at living in the city where Mozart and Beethoven had worked.<ref>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 1, p. 84</ref> Count Ferdinand von Stockhammer, a leading patron of the arts in Vienna, arranged for Gounod's setting of the [[Music for the Requiem Mass|Requiem Mass]] to be performed.<ref>Harding, p. 48</ref> It was warmly received, and its success led Stockhammer to commission a second Mass from the composer.<ref name=f3>Flynn, p. 3</ref>

From Vienna, Gounod moved on to [[Prussia]]. He renewed his acquaintance with Fanny Hensel in Berlin and then went on to [[Leipzig]] to meet her brother. At their first encounter Mendelssohn greeted him, "So you're the madman my sister has told me about",{{refn|Ah! c'est vous le fou dont ma soeur m'a parlé!<ref name=pd93/>|group=n}} but he devoted four days to entertaining the young man and gave him much encouragement.<ref name=pd93>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 1, p. 93</ref> He arranged a special concert of the [[Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra]] so that his guest might hear the [[Symphony No. 3 (Mendelssohn)|''Scottish'' Symphony]], and played him some of the works of Bach on the organ of the [[St. Thomas Church, Leipzig|Thomaskirche]].<ref>Harding, p. 50</ref> Reciprocating, Gounod played the [[Dies irae|Dies Irae]] from his Viennese Requiem, and was gratified when Mendelssohn said of one passage that it was worthy to be signed by [[Luigi Cherubini]]. Gounod commented, "Words like this from such a master are a true honour and one wears them with more pride than many a ribbon".{{refn|"'Mon ami, ce morceau-là pourrait être signé Cherubini!' Ce sont de véritables décorations, ajoute Gounod, que de semblables paroles venant d'un tel maître, et on les porte avec plus d'orgueil que bien des rubans."<ref name=pd93/>|group=n}}

===Rising reputation===
[[File:MEP Chapell exteriors.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=exterior of neo-classical west front of a church|[[Missions étrangères de Paris]]]]
Gounod arrived home in Paris in May 1843. He took up a post, which his mother had helped to secure, as chapel master of the church of the [[Paris Foreign Missions Society|Missions étrangères]]. For a winner of the Prix de Rome it was not a distinguished position. The organ of the church was poor, and the choir consisted of two basses, a tenor and a choirboy.<ref>Tiersot, p. 421 and Flynn, p. 3</ref> To compound Gounod's difficulties, the regular congregation was hostile to his attempts to improve the music of the church.<ref name=c143>{{harvnb|Cooper|1957|p=143}}</ref> He expressed his views to a colleague:
{{Blockquote|It is high time the flag of liturgical art took the place occupied hitherto in our churches by that of profane melody. [Let us] banish all the romantic lollipops and saccharine piosities which have been ruining our taste for so long. Palestrina and Bach are the musical Fathers of the Church: our business is to prove ourselves loyal sons of theirs.{{sfn|Cooper|1957|p=149}}}}
Despite his generally affable and compliant nature Gounod remained adamant; he gradually won his parishioners over, and served for most of the five-year term he had agreed to.{{sfn|Curtiss|1952|p=53}} During this period Gounod's religious feelings became increasingly strong. He was reunited with a childhood friend, now a priest, Charles Gay, and for a time he himself felt drawn to holy orders.<ref name=f3/> In 1847 he began to study theology and philosophy at the seminary of [[Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris|St Sulpice]], but before long his secular side asserted itself. Doubting his capacity for celibacy, he decided not to seek ordination and continued with his career as a musician.<ref name=c143/> He later recalled:
{{Blockquote|The [[French Revolution of 1848|1848 Revolution]] had just broken out when I left my job as musical director at the Église des Missions étrangères. I had done it for four and a half years and I had learnt a lot from it, but as far as my future career was concerned it had left me vegetating without any prospects. There's only one place where a composer can make a name for himself: the theatre.<ref>''Quoted'' in {{harvnb|Nectoux|1991|p=27}}</ref>}}

The outset of Gounod's theatrical career was greatly helped by his reacquaintance with Pauline Viardot in Paris in 1849. Viardot, then at the peak of her fame, was able to secure for him a commission for a full-length opera. In this Gounod was exceptionally fortunate: a novice composer in the 1840s would usually, at the most, be asked to write a one-act [[curtain raiser]].<ref>Lacombe, p. 210</ref> Gounod and his librettist, [[Émile Augier]], created ''[[Sapho (Gounod)|Sapho]]'', drawing on Ancient Greek legend. It was intended as a departure from the three genres of opera then prevalent in Paris – [[Italian opera]], [[grand opera]] and [[opéra comique]]. It later came to be regarded as the first of a new type, [[opéra lyrique]], but at the time it was thought by some to be a throwback to the operas of [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]], written sixty or seventy years earlier.<ref>Lacombe, p. 249; and Harding, p. 69</ref> After difficulties with the censor, who found the text politically suspect and too erotic, ''Sapho'' was given at the [[Paris Opera|Paris Opéra]] at the [[Salle Le Peletier]] on 16 April 1851.<ref>{{multiref2|{{harvnb|Huebner|1990|pp=30–31}}|{{harvnb|Curtiss|1952|p=60}}}}</ref> It was reviewed by Berlioz in his capacity as a music critic; he found some parts "extremely beautiful … the highest poetic level of drama", and others "hideous, unbearable, horrible".<ref name=c59/> It did not draw the public and closed after nine performances.<ref name=c59>{{harvnb|Curtiss|1952|p=59}}</ref> The opera received a single performance at the [[Royal Opera House]] in London later in the same year, with Viardot again in the title role. The music received more praise than the libretto, and the performers received more than either, but ''[[The Morning Post]]'' recorded, "The opera, we regret to say, was received very coldly".<ref>"Royal Italian Opera", ''The Morning Post'', 11 August 1851, p. 5</ref>

[[File:Anna-Gounod-by-Ingres.png|thumb|left|Gounod's wife, Anna, by Ingres, 1859|alt=pencil drawing of seated young woman with dark hair looking towards the viewer]]
In April 1851 Gounod married Anna Zimmerman, daughter of his former piano professor at the Conservatoire.<ref name=grove/> The marriage led to a breach with Viardot; the Zimmermans refused to have anything to do with her, for reasons that are not clear. Gounod's biographer Steven Huebner refers to rumours about a liaison between the singer and composer, but adds that "the real story remains murky".<ref name=grove/> Gounod was appointed superintendent of instruction in singing to the communal schools in the city of Paris, and from 1852 to 1860 he was director of a prominent choral society, the Orphéon de la Ville de Paris.<ref>Holden, p. 144</ref> He also frequently stood in for his elderly and often ill father-in-law, giving music lessons to private pupils. One of them, [[Georges Bizet]], found Gounod's teaching inspiring, praised "his warm and paternal interest" and remained a lifelong admirer.{{sfn|Curtiss|1952|p=61}}{{refn|Bizet later wrote, "Fifteen years ago, when I used to say ''Sapho'' and the choruses from ''Ulysse'' are masterpieces, people laughed in my face. ''I was right'' and I am right today. Only I was destined to be right several years too soon".<ref>''Quoted'' in {{harvnb|Curtiss|1952|p=61}}</ref> There were tensions between the two composers in the 1870s, possibly due to a degree of envy on Gounod's part of Bizet's blossoming talent, but when Bizet died at the age of 37 in 1875 Gounod gave the eulogy at the graveside with tears rolling down his cheeks.<ref>Kendall-Davies, p 240</ref>|group=n}}

Despite the brevity of ''Sapho''{{'}}s run, the piece advanced Gounod's reputation, and the [[Comédie-Française]] commissioned him to write incidental music for [[François Ponsard]]'s five-act verse tragedy ''Ulysse'' (1852), based on the ''[[Odyssey]]''. The score included twelve choruses as well as orchestral interludes. It was not a successful production: Ponsard's play was not well received, and the audience at the Comédie-Française had little interest in music.{{sfn|Curtiss|1952|pp=60–61}} During the 1850s Gounod composed his two symphonies for full orchestra and one of his best-known religious works, the [[St. Cecilia Mass|Messe solennelle en l'honneur de Sainte-Cécile]]. It was written for the [[St Cecilia]]'s day celebrations of 1855 at [[Saint-Eustache, Paris|Saint-Eustache]], and in Flynn's view demonstrates Gounod's success in "blending the operatic style with church music – a task at which many of his colleagues tried and failed".<ref name=f3/>

As well as church and concert music, Gounod was composing operas, beginning with ''[[La nonne sanglante|La Nonne sanglante]]'' (The Bloody Nun, 1854), a melodramatic ghost story with a libretto that Berlioz had tried and failed to set, and that [[Daniel Auber|Auber]], [[Giacomo Meyerbeer|Meyerbeer]], [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]] and others had rejected.<ref>Williams, Anne. [https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/opera/williams/williams.html "Lewis/Gounod's Bleeding ''Nonne'': An Introduction and Translation of the Scribe/Delavigne Libretto"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721204401/https://romantic-circles.org/praxis/opera/williams/williams.html |date=21 July 2020 }}, [[Romantic Circles]]. Retrieved 23 November 2019</ref> The librettists, [[Eugène Scribe]] and [[Germain Delavigne]], reworked the text for Gounod and the piece opened at the Opéra on 18 October 1854.<ref>Terrier, Agnès (2018). Notes to Naxos DVD 2.110632, "La Nonne sanglante". {{oclc|1114338360}}</ref> The critics derided the libretto but praised the music and production; the work was doing well at the box-office until it fell victim to musical politics. The director of the Opéra, [[Nestor Roqueplan]], was supplanted by his enemy, [[François-Louis Crosnier]], who described ''La Nonne sanglante'' as "filth" and shut the production down after its eleventh performance.{{sfn|Curtiss|1952|p=66}}

===Operatic successes and failures===
In January 1856 Gounod was appointed a knight of the [[Legion of Honour]].<ref>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 1, p. 172</ref> In June of that year he and his wife had the first of their two children, a son Jean (1856–1935).<ref name=pd259>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 1, p. 259</ref> (Their daughter Jeanne (1863–1945) was born seven years later.<ref>Harding, p. 134</ref>) In 1858 Gounod composed his next opera, ''[[Le médecin malgré lui (opera)|Le Médecin malgré lui]]''. With a good libretto by [[Jules Barbier]] and [[Michel Carré]], faithful to the [[Le Médecin malgré lui|Molière comedy]] on which it is based, it gained excellent reviews,<ref>Durocher, Léon, ''quoted'' in "M. Gounod's New Opera", ''[[The Musical World]]'', 23 January 1858, pp. 52–53; "Music and Dramatic Gossip", ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'', 23 January 1858, p. 120; and "Music and the Drama", ''The Athenaeum'', 25 September 1858, p. 403</ref> but its good reception was overshadowed for Gounod by the death of his mother the day after the premiere.<ref>Harding, p. 105; and Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 1, p. 259</ref><ref>Gounod, Charles, Julien Tiersot and Theodore Baker. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/737925 "Gounod's Letters"], ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'', January 1919, pp. 48–49</ref> At the time an initial run of 100 performances was considered a success;<ref>[http://www.operette-theatremusical.fr/2015/07/04/edmond-audran "Edmond Audran"] Opérette – Théâtre Musical, Académie Nationale de l'Opérette (in French). Retrieved 24 November 2019</ref> ''Le Médecin malgré lui'' achieved that and was revived in Paris and elsewhere during the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th.<ref>Gounod, p. 156</ref> In 1893 the British ''[[The Musical Times|Musical Times]]'' praised its "irresistible gaiety".<ref name=mt/> Huebner comments that the opera does not deserve the relative neglect into which it has since fallen.<ref name=grove/>

[[File:Faust acte V 2e tableau-1859.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|alt=Engraving showing an elaborate stage scene with large crowd and grandiose buildings behind| The palace of Méphistophélès, ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', 1859]]
With Barbier and Carré, Gounod turned from French comedy to German legend for ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]''. The three had worked on the piece in 1856, but it had to be shelved to avoid clashing with a rival (non-operatic) ''Faust'' at another theatre. Returning to it in 1858 Gounod completed the score, rehearsals began towards the end of the year and the opera opened at the [[Théâtre-Lyrique]] in March 1859.<ref name=grove/> One critic reported that it was presented "under circumstances of uncommon excitement and expectation";<ref>"Music and the Drama", ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'', 26 March 1859, p. 427</ref> another praised the work but doubted if it would have enough popular appeal to be a commercial triumph.<ref>"Foreign Correspondence", ''The Literary Gazette'', 26 March 1859, p. 403</ref> The composer later recalled that the opera "did not strike the public very much at first",<ref>Gounod, p. 158</ref> but after some revision and with a good deal of vigorous promotion by Gounod's publisher, Antoine de Choudens, it became an international success. There were productions in Vienna in 1861, and in Berlin, London and New York in 1863.<ref>"Vienna", ''[[The Musical World]]'', 22 June 1861, pp. 395–396; "M. Gounod's ''Faust'' at Berlin", ''The Musical World'', 31 January 1863, pp. 69–70; and Kobbé, p. 741</ref> ''Faust'' has remained Gounod's most popular opera and one of the staples of the operatic repertoire.<ref name=grove-faust/>

Over the next eight years Gounod composed five more operas, all with Barbier or Carré or both. ''[[Philémon et Baucis]]'' (1860) and ''[[La colombe|La Colombe]]'' (The Dove, 1860) were opéras comiques based on stories by [[Jean de La Fontaine]]. The first was an attempt to take advantage of a vogue for mildly satirical comedies in mythological dress started by [[Jacques Offenbach]] with ''[[Orpheus in the Underworld|Orphée aux enfers]]'' (1858).<ref name=pb>{{cite Grove|last=Huebner|first=Steven|id=O903980|title=Philémon et Baucis ('Philemon and Baucis')|year=2002|orig-year=1992}} {{subscription required}}</ref> The opera had originally been intended for the theatre at [[Baden-Baden]],<ref name=h58>{{harvnb|Huebner|1990|pp=58–59}}</ref> but Offenbach and his authors expanded it for its eventual first performance, in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique.<ref name=h58/> ''La Colombe'', also written for Baden-Baden, was premiered there and later expanded for its first Paris production (1886).

After these two moderate successes,{{sfn|Huebner|1990|p=59}} Gounod had an outright failure, ''[[La reine de Saba|La Reine de Saba]]'' (1862), a grand opera with an exotic setting. The piece was lavishly mounted, and the premiere was attended by the Emperor [[Napoleon III]] and the Empress [[Eugénie de Montijo|Eugénie]],<ref>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 2, p. 27</ref> but the reviews were damning and the run finished after fifteen performances.<ref name=rds>{{Cite Grove|last=Huebner|first=Steven|id=O009540|title=Reine de Saba, La ('The Queen of Sheba')|year=2002|orig-year=1992}} {{subscription required}}</ref>{{refn|One review said, "The ''Reine de Saba'' looks very much like a failure, owing to the stupidity of the libretto, which does not contain one single interesting scene, and the monotony of the instrumented recitatives. … You could feel the icy mantle of ''ennui'' falling gradually upon everybody's shoulders. It is a pity to see a gifted man wasting energy and invention on that which is intractable and worthless".<ref>"Musical and Dramatic Gossip", ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'', 8 March 1862, p. 338</ref>|group=n}} The composer, depressed by the failure, sought comfort in a long trip to Rome with his family. The city enchanted him as much as ever: in Huebner's words "renewed exposure to Rome's close entwining of Christianity and classical culture energized him for the travails of his career back in Paris".<ref name=grove/><ref name=rds/>
[[File:Mme-Miolan-Carvalho-Juliet-1867.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=Painting of a young woman in 16th-century costume|[[Marie Caroline Miolan-Carvalho|Caroline Carvalho]] as Juliette, 1867]]
Gounod's next opera was ''[[Mireille (opera)|Mireille]]'' (1864), a five-act tragedy in a [[Provence|Provençal]] peasant setting. Gounod travelled to Provence to absorb the local atmosphere of the various settings of the work and to meet the author of the original story, [[Frédéric Mistral]].<ref name=mir/> Some critics have seen the piece as a forerunner of ''[[Verismo (music)|verismo]]'' opera, although one that emphasises elegance over sensationalism.<ref>Flynn, p. 13</ref> The opera was not a great success at first; there were strong objections from some quarters that Gounod had given full tragic status to a mere farmer's daughter.<ref name="h147"/> After some revision it became popular in France, and remained in the regular opéra comique repertoire into the 20th century.<ref name=mir>{{Cite Grove|last=Huebner|first=Steven|id=O007158|title=Mireille|year=2002|orig-year=1992}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

In 1866 Gounod was elected to the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]] and was promoted within the Legion of Honour.<ref>Prod'homme and Dandelot, vol 2, p. 76</ref> During the 1860s his non-operatic works included a Mass (1862), a [[Stabat Mater]] (1867), twenty shorter pieces of liturgical or other religious music, two cantatas – one religious, one secular – and a ''[[Pontifical Anthem|Marche pontificale]]'' for the anniversary of the coronation of [[Pius IX]] (1869), later adopted as the official anthem of the [[Vatican City]].<ref name=grove/>

Gounod's last opera of the 1860s was ''[[Roméo et Juliette]]'' (1867), with a libretto that follows [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's play]] fairly closely.<ref name=h147>Holden, p. 147</ref>{{refn|Apart from some trimming of episodes not directly relevant to the main love story, the major departure from Shakespeare's plot is that in the climactic tomb scene Juliet wakes up before Romeo dies, and they have time to sing a farewell duet. Other 19th-century composers, including Berlioz, also adopted this device.<ref name=h147/>|group=n}} The piece was a success from the outset, with box-office receipts boosted by the large number of visitors to Paris for the [[Exposition Universelle (1867)|Exposition Universelle]]. Within a year of the premiere it was staged in major opera houses in continental Europe, Britain and the US. Other than ''Faust'' it remains the only Gounod opera to be frequently staged internationally.<ref>Kobbé, p. 751</ref><ref name=rj>{{Cite Grove|last=Huebner|first=Steven|id=O006772|title=Roméo et Juliette ('Romeo and Juliet')(ii)|year=2002|orig-year=1992}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

===London===
After the outbreak of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] in 1870, Gounod moved with his family from their home in [[Saint-Cloud]], outside Paris, first to the countryside near [[Dieppe]] and then to England. The house in Saint-Cloud was wrecked by the advancing Prussians in the build-up to the [[Siege of Paris (1870–71)|Siege of Paris]].{{refn|Though destroying his house the Prussians still enjoyed Gounod's music: the Berlin correspondent of ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'' recorded numerous performances of ''Faust'' (and other French operas) in the Berlin opera houses in early 1871.<ref>"Musical Gossip", ''The Athenaeum'', 11 March 1871, p. 312</ref>|group=n}} To earn a living in London, Gounod wrote music for a British publisher; in Victorian Britain there was a great demand for religious and quasi-religious drawing room ballads, and he was happy to provide them.<ref name=c146>{{harvnb|Cooper|1957|p=146}}</ref>

Gounod accepted an invitation from the organising committee of the [[Annual International Exhibitions (London 1871–74)|Annual International Exhibition]] to write a choral piece for its grand opening at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] on 1 May 1871. As a result of its favourable reception he was appointed director of the new Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, which, with [[Queen Victoria]]'s approval, was subsequently renamed the [[Royal Choral Society]].<ref>"M. Charles François Gounod", ''The Graphic'', 31 August 1872, p. 194</ref><ref>[http://www.royalchoralsociety.co.uk/about.htm "About the Royal Choral Society"], Royal Choral Society. Retrieved 25 November 2019</ref> He also conducted orchestral concerts for the [[Royal Philharmonic Society|Philharmonic Society]] and at the [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]], [[St James's Hall]] and other venues.<ref>"Philharmonic Society", ''The Examiner'', 11 March 1871, p. 254; and "Gounod Festival", ''The Orchestra'', 2 August 1872, p. 278</ref>{{refn|Some felt that Gounod was too ubiquitous. ''[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]'' took exception to a concert in June 1872 "made up of and designed for Gounod, led by Gounod, Palestrina doctored by Gounod, Bach watered by Gounod, Mozart drivelled away by Gounod ... coming it a little bit too strong".<ref>"Our Omnibus", ''The Era'', 2 June 1872, p. 10</ref>|group=n}} Proponents of English music complained that Gounod neglected native composers in his concerts,<ref>Harding, p. 176</ref> but his own music was popular and widely praised. The music critic of ''[[The Times]]'', [[James William Davison|J. W. Davison]], rarely pleased by modern music, was not an admirer,<ref>Davison, pp. 115–116</ref> but [[Henry Chorley]] of ''[[Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]'' was an enthusiastic supporter,<ref>Harding, p. 64</ref> and writers in ''[[The Musical World]]'', ''[[Evening Standard|The Standard]]'', ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'' and ''[[The Morning Post]]'' called Gounod a great composer.<ref>"M. Gounod's Benefit Concert", ''[[The Musical World]]''; 14 June 1873, p. 395; "Concerts", ''[[Evening Standard|The Standard]]'', 18 July 1872, p. 3; "Letter from Paris", ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'', 5 December 1872, p. 2; and "St. James's Hall", ''[[The Morning Post]]'', 2 June 1873, p. 6</ref>

[[File:Georgina-Weldon-1887.png|thumb|left|upright=0.6|alt=Advertisement showing a middle-aged woman in an extravagant hat, announcing that though aged 50 the soap has left her complexion youthful|[[Georgina Weldon]] in a Victorian advertisement for soap]]
In February 1871, [[Julius Benedict]], the director of the Philharmonic Society, introduced Gounod to a singer and music teacher, [[Georgina Weldon]].<ref>Harding, p. 166</ref> She quickly became a dominant influence in Gounod's professional and personal life. There was much inconclusive conjecture about the nature of their relationship. Once peace was restored in France during 1871, Anna Gounod returned home with her mother and children, but Gounod stayed on in London, living in the Weldons' house.<ref name=pd127/> Weldon introduced him to competitive business practices with publishers, negotiating substantial royalties, but eventually pushed such matters too far and involved him in litigation brought by his publisher, which the composer lost.<ref name=grove/>

Gounod lived in the Weldons' household for nearly three years. The French newspapers speculated about his motives for remaining in London; they speculated the more when it was suggested that he had declined the [[Adolphe Thiers|French President's]] invitation to return and succeed Auber as director of the Conservatoire.<ref name=pd127>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 2, p. 127</ref> In early 1874 his relations with Davison of ''The Times'', never cordial, descended into personal hostility.<ref>Davison, pp. 299–310</ref> The pressures on him in England and the comments about him in France brought Gounod to a state of nervous collapse, and in May 1874 his friend Gaston de Beaucourt came to London and took him back home to Paris.<ref>Prod'homme and Dandelot, Vol 2, pp. 151–152</ref> Weldon was furious when she discovered that Gounod had left, and she made many difficulties for him later, including holding on to manuscripts he had left at her house and publishing a tendentious and self-justifying account of their association. She later brought a lawsuit against him which effectively prevented him from coming back to Britain after May 1885.<ref>Harding, p. 209</ref>{{refn|Weldon sued Gounod for libel, accusing him of being behind defamatory articles about her in the French press. He declined to come to London to defend himself and in his absence Weldon was awarded damages of £10,000.<ref>"Action by Mrs. Weldon", ''[[The Times]]'', 8 May 1885, p. 11</ref> His absolute refusal to pay her this sum made him liable to arrest if he entered Britain.<ref>Foreman and Foreman, p. 263</ref>|group=n}}

===Later years===
[[File:Cinq-Mars-Opéra-Gounod.jpg|thumb|alt=Theatre poster showing fainting heroine at front and hero being marched off to execution at back, with bearded monk or priest looking on. All are in 17th century costumes|''[[Cinq-Mars (opera)|Cinq-Mars]]'', 1877]]
The musical scene in France had altered considerably during Gounod's absence. After the death of Berlioz in 1869, Gounod had been generally regarded as France's leading composer.<ref name=mcmt>{{harvnb|Cooper|1940}}</ref> He returned to a France in which, though still well respected, he was no longer in the vanguard of French music.<ref name=c146/> A rising generation, including members of the new [[Société Nationale de Musique]] such as Bizet, [[Emmanuel Chabrier]], [[Gabriel Fauré]] and [[Jules Massenet]], was establishing itself.<ref>{{multiref2|{{harvnb|Jones|1989|p=28}}|{{Cite Grove|last=Nectoux|first=Jean-Michel|author-link=Jean-Michel Nectoux|title=Fauré, Gabriel (Urbain)|id=09366|year=2001|ref=none}} {{subscription required}}}}</ref> He was not embittered, and was well disposed to younger composers, even when he did not enjoy their works.{{sfn|Cooper|1957|p=148}} Of the later generation he was most impressed by [[Camille Saint-Saëns]], seventeen years his junior, whom he is said to have dubbed "the French Beethoven".<ref>Deruchie, p. 19</ref>

Resuming operatic composition, Gounod finished ''[[Polyeucte (opera)|Polyeucte]]'', on which he had been working in London, and during 1876 composed ''[[Cinq-Mars (opera)|Cinq-Mars]]'', a four-act historical drama set in the time of [[Cardinal Richelieu]].<ref>Harding, p. 192</ref> The latter was staged first at the [[Opéra-Comique]] in April 1877, and had a mediocre run of 56 performances.{{sfn|Noël|Stoullig|1878|p=172}} ''Polyeucte'', a religious subject close to the composer's heart, did worse when it was given at the Opéra the following year. In the words of Gounod's biographer [[James Harding (music writer)|James Harding]], "After [[Polyeuctus|Polyeucte]] had been martyred on twenty-nine occasions the box-office ruled that enough was enough. He was never resuscitated."<ref>Harding, p. 199</ref>

The last of Gounod's operas, ''[[Le Tribut de Zamora]]'' (1881), ran for 34 nights,{{sfn|Noël|Stoullig|1882|p=37}} and in 1884 he made a revision of ''Sapho'', which lasted for 30 performances at the Opéra.{{sfn|Noël|Stoullig|1885|p=17}} He reworked the role of Glycère, the deceitful villainess of the piece, with the image of Weldon in his mind: "I dreamt of the model … who was terrifying in satanic ugliness"<ref name=grovequote/> Throughout these disappointments ''Faust'' continued to attract the public, and in November 1888 Gounod conducted the 500th performance at the Opéra.{{refn|In a study of ''Faust'' Burton Fisher comments that this milestone seems minor when considered against the 1,250 performances the piece notched up in Paris by 1902, or the fact that the opera was given in every season at Covent Garden in the 47 years from 1863 to 1911.<ref>Fisher, pp. 15–16</ref>|group=n}}
[[File:Charles Gounod (1890) by Nadar.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=old man, bald, with bushy beard|Gounod in old age by [[Nadar]], 1890]]
Away from opera, Gounod wrote the large-scale ''Messe du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus'' in 1876 and ten other masses between then and 1893.<ref>Flynn, p. 225</ref> His greatest popular successes in his later career were religious works, the two large oratorios ''[[La rédemption|La Rédemption]]'' (1882) and ''[[Mors et vita]]'' (1885), both composed for and premiered at the [[Birmingham Triennial Music Festival]] in England.<ref>Flynn, p. 16</ref> The two were enthusiastically taken up by the British public and on the continent, and in their day were widely ranked with the oratorios of [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]] and Mendelssohn.<ref>Flynn, p. 6</ref> The Philharmonic Society in London unsuccessfully sought to commission a symphony from the composer in 1885 (the commission eventually went to Saint-Saëns);<ref>Deruchie, p. 15</ref> fragments of a third symphony exist from late in Gounod's career, but are thought to date from a few years later.<ref name=cpo>Condé, Gérard (2014). Notes to CPO CD 777863-2 {{oclc|8050958590}}</ref>

Gounod lived his last years at Saint-Cloud, composing sacred music and writing his memoirs and essays. His oratorio ''[[Saint Francois d'Assise (Gounod)|Saint Francois d'Assise]]'' was completed in 1891. On 15 October 1893, after returning home from playing the organ for Mass at his local church, he suffered a stroke while working on a setting of the Requiem in memory of his grandson Maurice, who had died in infancy. After being in a coma for three days Gounod died on 18 October, at the age of 75.<ref>Flynn, p. 7</ref>

A state funeral was held at [[La Madeleine, Paris|L'église de la Madeleine]], Paris, on 27 October 1893. Among the [[pallbearer]]s were [[Ambroise Thomas]], [[Victorien Sardou]] and the future French President [[Raymond Poincaré]].{{refn|In their respective capacities as Director of the Conservatoire, President of the Society of Dramatists and Composers, and Minister of Education, Fine Arts and Religion.<ref name=tf/>|group=n}} Fauré conducted the music, which at Gounod's wish was entirely vocal, with no organ or orchestral accompaniment. After the service, Gounod's remains were taken in procession to the {{ill|Cimetière d'Auteuil|fr}} near Saint-Cloud, where they were interred in the family vault.<ref name=tf>"Funeral of M. Gounod", ''[[The Times]]'', 28 October 1893, p. 5</ref>

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