Early years Lecocq was born in Paris, the son of a copyist at the Commercial Court of the Seine. His father was not highly paid, but supported a family of five children. As a boy Lecocq suffered from a hip condition that obliged him to use crutches throughout his life.
First success At the time when Lecocq left the Conservatoire, the genre of popular musical theatre known as
opérette was becoming popular. It had been introduced by the composer
Hervé and its principal exponent was
Jacques Offenbach, who presented his works at the
Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens from 1855. In 1856 he organised an open competition for aspiring composers. A jury of French composers and playwrights including
Daniel Auber, Halévy,
Ambroise Thomas,
Charles Gounod and
Eugène Scribe considered 78 entries; the five short-listed entrants were all asked to set a libretto,
Le Docteur Miracle, written by
Ludovic Halévy and
Léon Battu. The joint winners were Bizet and Lecocq.
Richard Traubner comments in his history of operetta that Bizet's version has survived better than Lecocq's, which is forgotten. Bizet became, and remained, a friend of Offenbach; Lecocq and Offenbach took a dislike to one another, and their rivalry in later years was not altogether friendly. Lecocq's setting of
Le Docteur Miracle, was given eleven performances at Offenbach's theatre, but this early success was followed by eleven years of obscurity and routine work as a teacher, accompanist and
répétiteur.
1870s The
Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871 temporarily interrupted Lecocq's rise, and he was gloomy about his prospects after it. While Offenbach struggled to re-establish himself in Parisian theatres, Lecocq began to occupy his place. '', Paris, 1873 After the outbreak of the war Lecocq moved temporarily to Brussels, where he premiered
Les Cent Vierges (The Hundred Virgins, 1872),
La Fille de Madame Angot (Madame Angot's Daughter, 1872) and
Giroflé-Girofla (1874), all great successes there and then in Paris and elsewhere.
La Fille de Madame Angot was most conspicuous of these successes. At the Parisian premiere in February 1873, Saint-Saëns said, "It's much more serious than you think; it's a success without parallel!" The work ran for 411 performances in Paris and was given in 103 cities and towns in France, and theatres in other countries: its London premiere was within three months of the first Paris performances. In 1874 the London paper
The Morning Post commented that twelve months earlier scarcely anyone in England had heard of Lecocq, but now it was doubtful if there was anyone "who has not played sung or whistled one or more of Lecocq's charming melodies". So great was the composer's popularity as a composer of operétte that he felt obliged to use a pen-name ("Georges Stern") for his serious music such as his
Miettes musicales, Op. 21 (
Musical Crumbs). which, in Traubner's words, "left no doubt that the composer had succeeded Offenbach". Nonetheless, by this time Offenbach had recovered much of his pre-war popularity with Parisian audiences, and Lecocq's pre-eminence was briefly threatened by the older composer's successful
Madame Favart (1878) and
La Fille du tambour-major (1879), but the latter was Offenbach's last completed work and he died in 1880.
Later years '', one of Lecocq's successes in the 1880s At the turn of the decade Lecocq had a year's break from composition as a result of illness and domestic problems. The failure led to the break-up of Lecocq's association with Koning and the Renaissance. The most successful of Lecocq's works for the Nouveautés were the opéra bouffe
Le Jour et la Nuit (Day and Night, 1881) and the opéra comique
Le Cœur et la Main (The Heart and the Hand, 1882), both variations on his familiar theme of wedding nights disrupted by farcical complications. In ''
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'',
Andrew Lamb describes these as Lecocq's last real successes. Lamb writes that he accepted that fashion in comic opera had changed, and he turned to other genres. In 1886, his opera,
Plutus, a "morality" based on a play by
Aristophanes, was presented at the Opéra-Comique. After the premiere the Paris correspondent of
The Era called it "the most unsuccessful and insignificant of his works … utterly devoid of originality, altogether wanting in inspiration, and without a genuine sparkle from end to end". The run closed after eight performances. Lecocq was appointed a Chevalier of the
Légion d'honneur in 1900 and promoted to Officier in 1910. He died in his home city of Paris, aged 85. ==Works==