The dominating influence of Gluck, so potent in shaping the tastes and methods of the more serious French composers, asserted itself from the beginning in the work of Gounod, and no modern composer has been so brilliant and effective a disciple in carrying out the formulas of that great master.  More free, flexible, and melodious than Spontini and Halevy, measuring his work by a conception of art more lofty and ideal than that of Meyerbeer, and in creative power and originality by far their superior, Gounod’s genius, as shown in the one opera of “Faust,” suffices to stamp his great mastership.

But he had many years of struggle yet before this end was to be achieved.  His early lyric compositions fell dead.  Score after score was rejected by the managers.  No one cared to hazard the risk of producing an opera by this unknown composer.  His first essay was a pastoral opera, “Philemon and Baucis,” and it did not escape from the manuscript for many a long year, though it has in more recent times been received by critical German audiences with great applause.  A catalogue of Gounod’s failures would have no significance except as showing that his industry and energy were not relaxed by public neglect.  His first decided encouragement came in 1851, when “Sappho” was produced at the French Opera through the influence of Madame Pauline Viardot, the sister of Malibran, who had a generous belief in the composer’s future, and such a position in the musical world of Paris as to make her requests almost mandatory.  This opera, based on the fine poem of Emile Augier, was well received, and cheered Gounod’s heart to make fresh efforts.  In 1852 he composed the choruses for Poussard’s classical tragedy of “Ulysse,” performed at the Theatre Francais.  The growing recognition of the world was evidenced in his appointment as director of the Normal Singing School of Paris, the primary school of the Conservatory.  In 1854 a five-act opera, with a libretto from the legend of the “Bleeding Nun,” was completed and produced, and Gounod was further gratified to see that musical authorities were willing to grant him a distinct place in the ranks of art, though as yet not a very high one.

For years Gounod’s serious and elevated mind had been pondering on Goethe’s great poem as the subject of an opera, and there is reason to conjecture that parts of it were composed and arranged, if not fully elaborated, long prior to its final crystallization.  But he was not yet quite ready to enter seriously on the composition of the masterpiece.  He must still try his hand on lesser themes.  Occasional pieces for the orchestra or choruses strengthened his hold on these important elements of lyric composition, and in 1858 he produce “Le Medecin malgre lui,” based on Moliere’s comedy, afterward performed as an English opera under the title of “The Mock Doctor.”  Gounod’s genius seems to have had no affinity for the graceful and sparkling measures of comic music, and his attempt to rival Rossini and Auber in the field where they were preeminent was decidedly unsuccessful, though the opera contained much fine music.