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Delibes

Léo Delibes (1836–1891) was a French composer who studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Adolphe Adam and spent years as a church organist in Paris before establishing himself as one of the finest composers of ballet music of the nineteenth century. His Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876) raised the musical ambitions of ballet considerably; Tchaikovsky, on hearing Sylvia, declared that had he known it earlier he would never have written Swan Lake. His melodies, drawn from Coppélia, Sylvia, and the opera Lakmé, translate naturally to strings and remain among the most attractive repertoire for string orchestra arrangements.

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