
Henri Rabaud, descended from a family with distinguished musical traditions, was a pupil of Gédalge and Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, of which he became director after Fauré’s retirement. He was conservative as a composer and active as a conductor.
Dramatic Music
Rabaud’s opera Mârouf, savetier du Caire (‘Mârouf, Cobbler of Cairo’) combines the Wagnerian and the exotic. He wrote other operas, incidental music and film scores, the latter including the 1925 score for Joueur d’échecs (‘Chess Player’).
Orchestral Music
Orchestral music by Rabaud includes Divertissements sur des chansons russes (‘Divertissements on Russian songs’), Eglogue (a Virgilian poem for orchestra), and the symphonic poem La Procession nocturne.