Ludovic HalevyLudovic Halévy was a French author and dramatist best known for his collaborations with Henri Meilhac on Georges Bizet's Carmen and Jacques Offenbach's works. In Paris, Ludovic Halévy was born. His father, Léon Halévy (1802-1883), was a civil servantas well as a smart and varied writer who tried practically every genre of literature—prose and verse, vaudeville, theatre, and history—but failed miserably in all. His uncle, Fromental Halévy, was a well-known opera composer, explaining Ludovic Halévy's dual and early association with the Parisian theatre. Prior to his marriage to Alexandrine Lebas, the daughter of a Christian architect, his father converted from Judaism to Christianity. At the age of six, Halévy may have been seen playing in the Foyer de la Danse, with which he was to become so familiar to his readers, and as a boy of twelve, on his way back to the Collège Louis le Grand, he would frequently look in at the Odéon, where he had free admittance, and see the first act of the new play. Read More Read Less