Rabaud, Henri (Benjamin) (1873–1949)

French composer. He wrote six operas, including Mârouf, savetier du Caire (1914), which was his most successful. He also wrote music for films, and was director of the Paris Conservatory 1920–41.

He studied under his father, the cellist Hippolyte Rabaud (1839–1900), and with André Gédalge and Massenet at the Paris Conservatory, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1894. After his stay in Rome he visited Vienna and travelled elsewhere, and after his return to Paris he became harmony professor at the Conservatory and conductor at the Opéra. In 1920 he succeeded Fauré as director of the Conservatory, and was in turn succeeded in that post by Claude Delvincourt in 1941.

Works Opera and stage La fille de Roland (1904), Le premier glaive (1907), Mârouf, savetier du Caire (1914), L'appel de la mer (after Synge's play Riders to the Sea, 1924), Rolande et les mauvais garçons (1934); incidental music for Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Antony and Cleopatra (1917).

Music for film Joueurs d'échecs and Le miracle des loups.

Orchestral and choral Psalm 4 for chorus, two symphonies, symphonic poem Andromède, La procession nocturne (after Lenau's ‘Faust’ (1899), Le sacrifice d'Isaac, La flûte de Pan, Divertissement grec, Divertissement sur des airs russes, Poème sur le livre de Job.

Chamber string quartet; songs.