Robert Planquette began with military ballads, among them Le Régiment de Sambre-et-Meuse, a march the whole country hums without knowing its author. In 1877 his Cloches de Corneville ran for four hundred and eight performances: after Offenbach, the most performed operetta of the day. Rip won him London, a rare thing for a Frenchman in the genre. A chill caught at a rehearsal carried him off.
The story
Born in Paris in 1848 into a Norman family, Robert Planquette passed through the Conservatoire and began with military songs. One of them, “Le Régiment de Sambre-et-Meuse”, became a march the whole of France knows without knowing whose it is.
In 1877, at the Folies-Dramatiques, Les Cloches de Corneville ran for four hundred and eight performances: the most played operetta of its time after Offenbach's.
Rip, first staged in London in 1882 and then in Paris in 1884, confirmed his success across the Channel — a rare thing for a French composer of operetta.
Surcouf (1887) and Panurge (1895) followed, without ever matching Corneville.
He died on 28 January 1903 of a chill caught on leaving a rehearsal, aged fifty-four. He rests in Division 93, on the Avenue Carette, first row, beneath a pink granite stele loaded with three bronze bells — the bells of Corneville.
The grave
A stele of pink granite designed by the architect Philippe Beauvois, laden with bronzes: a medallion signed Legastelois (1904), three bells — for Les Cloches de Corneville — a branch of Norman apple tree, the rosette of the Legion of Honour, a lyre, a torch, and dragons at the four corners. The inscription lists the works with their dates: “Le régiment de Sambre et Meuse, 1872, Les cloches de Corneville, 1877, Rip, 1884, Surcouf, 1887, Panurge, 1895.” His wife, Anna Berthelot, who died the same year as he did, is named first.
On site, do not miss
The three bronze bells on the stele, echoing his great success, the branch of Norman apple tree, the rosette of the Legion of Honour — and, carved in a list, the five titles of his works with their dates.
Visitors' questions
Where is Robert Planquette's grave?
In Division 93, avenue Carette, first row. There is no mistaking it: a pink granite stele adorned with three bronze bells, echoing Les Cloches de Corneville, with bronze dragons at the corners.
Félix ZiemWhich work made Planquette famous?
Les Cloches de Corneville, in 1877 — the Chimes of Normandy, as English audiences knew it: four hundred and eight performances at the Folies-Dramatiques, the most performed operetta of its day after Offenbach's. He had also written “Le Régiment de Sambre-et-Meuse”.
Charles LecocqHow did Robert Planquette die?
Of a chill caught on leaving a rehearsal, on 28 January 1903, at fifty-four. His wife Anna Berthelot had died the same year, and it is her name that comes first on the stele.
FoottitDid his music travel?
It did, above all to England: Rip was first staged in London in 1882, two years before Paris — a rare thing for a French operetta composer. His works stayed in the repertoire there longer than in France: the stele in fact carves “Rip, 1884”, which is the Paris date; London had played it two years earlier, in 1882.
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