Paul Bastide

Paul Bastide was born at Quimper and studied at the University of Aix-en-Provence and the Paris Conservatoire (with Pessard and Massenet), winning a first prize in harmony.

From 1919–38 Bastide was the musical director of the opera house in Strasbourg, conducting Samson et Dalila at the reopening on 8 March 1919 after the German occupation of Alsace.

He returned again after the Second World War, from 1945–48, reopening with Carmen on 16 November 1945 and conducting notable productions of Béatrice et Bénédict, and Martine by Henri Rabaud (premiere).

He supervised the centennial revival of Le Pré aux clercs (1932) and new productions of Tarass Boulba, Don Quichotte (with Chaliapin) and The Marriage of Figaro.

Several operas by Bastide were staged in France: Idylle à l'Etoile (Marseille, 11 January 1899), L'Amour magicien (opéra-comique in one act, words and music by Bastide, premiered in Toulouse February 1903), Médée (The Hague, 1911), Le Gentil Bernard (Vichy, 22 July 1919), Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (opéra-bouffe in three acts, words by Pajol after Molière, premiere Strasbourg 5 February 1921), La Vannina (Rouen, 29 January 1926), Oedipe-Roi de Sophocle (Rouen, 21 February 1936), La Divine épopée (poème lyrique in five acts, premiere at the Opéra de Marseille on 25 March 1943), and Jeanne d’Arc (1949).