Roger Dumas (composer)


Roger Dumas was a French composer and conductor.

Biography

After he finished his musical studies, first at the Conservatory of Nice then the Conservatoire de Paris, Roger Dumas was conductor during the 1920s and 1930s at the Casino de Toulon. It is in this entertainment venue and under his musical direction that his first operetta, Flouette, was created in 1924. The second was Le Danseur du casino, premiered at Orange in 1935.
He became film score composer on two productions respectively released in 1930 and 1931.
His third film was Les Bleus de la marine by Maurice Cammage, starring Fernandel and the screenwriter Jean Manse. In association with the latter as librettist, he composed his third operetta, Ignace, created in Marseille in 1935, then revived at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in Paris in 1936, with Fernandel in the leading role, Andrex, Edmond Castel, Alice Tissot and Henry Trévoux. This operetta was brought to the screen under the same title, under the direction of Pierre Colombier, where Fernandel, Andrex and Alice Tissot resume their respective roles.
There followed a collaboration with Fernandel for twelve other films, including Barnabé by Alexander Esway, Simplet and L'Aventure de Cabassou by Gilles Grangier. Their last feature film together was Uniformes et grandes manœuvres by René Le Hénaff, released in December 1950, some months before the composer's premature deaths at 53.
Dumas also contributed to eight films without Fernandel, including his first two already mentioned, Pierre et Jean by André Cayatte as well as Cécile est morte! by Maurice Tourneur.
Roger Dumas' fourth operetta was Un de la musique, created at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin in 1937, with Georges Milton, Louis Florencie and Alice Tissot. The fifth was Les Chasseurs d'images, created at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1946, with Fernandel and René Lestelly. The sixth and last one was La Chance d'Oscar, not represented but of which Fernandel recorded two songs on 78 rpm - after others before, like Ignace and On m'appelle simplet, song-titles of the pre-mentioned movies -.

Film scores (complete)

: Films with Fernandel

Other compositions (selection)

  • 1924: Flouette, operetta on a libretto by J. Marlines
  • 1926: Ah, ne dites pas ça ; Cagoli-Cagola ; Chois l'Escavenier ; En Provence ; Je préfère l'écarté ; Mais si l'occasion se présente ; O parfums... Divins poèmes ; On a toujours tort... On a... ; Quand on a fait ça tout' la journée ; Quand on se mêl' de rien ; Y'a qu'ça: collection of popular songs for voice and piano
  • 1927: Les mensonges ; Mia Gorgonzolina ; O... O... Ophélie ; Par un soir gris ; Les Remords de Colombine ; Théo Théo ; Un coup d'œil ; La vadrouillarde ; Vision d'Orient ; Vive le printemps ; Yette: collection of popular songs for voice and piano
  • 1935: Le Danseur du casino, operetta
  • 1935: Ignace, operetta on a libretto by Jean Manse
  • 1936: Ignace, operetta cited above
  • 1937: Un de la musique, operetta on a libretto by Camille François
  • 1946: Les Chasseurs d'images, operetta on a libretto by André Mouëzy-Éon and Jean Manse, music in collaboration with Georges Van Parys
  • 1949: La Chance d'Oscar, operetta