Deldevez was born and died in Paris. He won many prizes as a violinist. He progressed from violinist at the
Paris Opera to conductor. He was principal conductor of the Orchestre de la
Société des Concerts du Conservatoire from 1872 to 1885. At the Paris
Opéra-Comique Deldevez conducted the revival of
La Fille du Regiment (with
Marie Cabel) in 1857,
Rose et Colas (first performance at the theatre, as well as 50th performance in 1862), the premiere of
Lalla-Roukh on 12 May 1862, the first production at the Salle Favart of
La Servante maîtresse on 12 August 1862 (
Galli-Marié's debut at the house), runs of
La dame blanche (including the 1,000th performance there in December 1862),
Le pré aux clercs,
Fra Diavolo (including the 500th performance in March 1863), and a revival of
Joseph in 1866. At the Paris Opera, Deldevez conducted
La Juive at the opening night of the
Palais Garnier in 1875, and the premiere of Massenet's
Le roi de Lahore in 1877, along with revivals of
La Favorite,
Guillaume Tell,
Hamlet,
Les Huguenots,
Le Prophète and
Robert le Diable. In 1867, Deldevez published his
Notation de la musique classique. He wrote a number of other books and became a chevalier of the
Legion d'Honneur in 1874. He published his memoires in 1890. Some confusion exists concerning his name, which is occasionally misclassified as "Ernest", though not in reliable sources of the period. One source records the name as "Edmé Édouard Deldevez." The standard French edition of his musicological works reedited in 1998 and 2005 by Jean-Philippe Navarre gives only "Édouard-Marie-Ernest Deldevez." ==The Sudre theory==