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Image:Charles Gounod.jpg|thumb|right|Charles
Gounod

Charles François Gounod (June 17, 1818
– October 18, 1893) was a France|French
composer, best known for his opera
Faust_(opera)|Faust.

Gounod was born in Paris, the son of a pianist
mother and a draftsman father.  His mother was his
first piano teacher, under her tutelage Gounod
first showed his musical talents.  He entered the
Paris Conservatoire where he studied under
Fromental Halévy. 
He won the Prix de Rome in 1839 for his cantata
Ferdinand. 
He subsequently went to Italy where he studied the
music of Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina|Palestrina.

Image:Cf_gounod_cartoon.png|thumb|left|Caricature
from Punch, 1882

Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851, but
had no great success until Faust (1859), based on
the Faust Part 1|play by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe|Goethe. 
This remains his best-known work, although the
opera Roméo et Juliette (based on the William
Shakespeare|Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet|play),
premiered in 1867, is also performed and recorded
regularly.

From 1870 to 1875 Gounod lived in England,
becoming the first conductor of what is now the
Royal Choral Society. Much of Gounod's music from
this time is vocal or choral in nature.

Later in his life, Gounod wrote mainly
religion|religious music, including a musical
setting of Ave Maria, which was based on the first
prelude from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier
by J.S. Bach.

Gounod died in 1893 in Saint-Cloud in France.

Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette was used as
the theme music for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.


== Works by Gounod ==

=== Operas ===

*Sapho - 1851
*La Nonne Sanglante - 1854
*Le Medecin Malgré Lui - 1858
*Faust - 1859
*Philémon et Baucis - 1860
*La Colombe - 1860
*La Reine de Saba - 1862
*Mireille - 1864
*Roméo et Juliette - 1867
*Cinq-Mars - 1877
*Polyeucte - 1878
*Le Tribut de Zamora - 1881

=== Oratorios ===

*Tobie - circa 1866
*Gallia - 1871
*Jésus sur le lac de Tibériade - 1878
*La Rédemption - 1882
*Christus factus est - 1883
*Mors et Vita - 1884


== References ==

Web reference | title=Charles Gounod: Works |
work=Charles GOUNOD: The Website ! |
URL=http://www.charles-gounod.com/vi/oeuvres/index
.htm | date=March 31 | year=2005