Authors

French · 1818–1893

Charles Gounod

Charles Gounod was a French composer best known for his operas Faust (1859) and Roméo et Juliette (1867), and for his Ave Maria — an adaptation of a Bach prelude that became one of the most recorded pieces of music in history. He studied in Rome as a Prix de Rome winner and was deeply influenced by the music of Bach and Palestrina. His religious music was particularly important to him; he considered himself primarily a sacred composer. He spent time in London during the Franco-Prussian War and had a complex relationship with the singer Georgina Weldon.