Valentino - Rue St Honoré 359 - Abonnement (subscription)
Copper round, 20 mm
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Translation (by myself, be lenient) of an article extracted from the Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXème siècle, Tome 15 (Great universal dictionary of the 19th century, Volume 15):
VALENTINO (Henri-Justin-Armand-Joseph), French musician, born in Lille in 1787, died in Versailles in 1865. His father, of Italian extraction, were surgeon in the military hospital of Lille. In its childhood, it showed extraordinary inclination for the music and quickly became a skilful violonist. Attached to twelve years with a theater, it was two years later in a position to conduct an orchestra. In 1813, he married in Metz the niece of the composer Persuis. This one, having become director of the Opera in 1818, called Valentino in Paris , then conductor of a theater of Rouen, and associated it with Kreutzer as conductor as a second of the royal Academy of music. After the retirement of Kreutzer, it shared with Habeneck the functions of first conductor of the Opera (1828). In 1824, it had been charged to assist Plantade in the direction of the orchestra of the vault of Charles X. Eliminated from the Opera under the direction of Louis Véron (1830), Valentino became conductor of the Opéra-Comique, which it left in to go to live in Chantilly. In 1837, Chabron having offered to him the direction of concerts of classical music which were established street Saint-Honore, in Paris, Valentino accepted, composed carefully its orchestra, and during more than three years, devoted its efforts to the execution of works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. But the Valentino concerts, as they were called, did not succeed and ceased in April 1841. Some time later the concert-hall was used for a ball which kept since then the name of Valentino. During this time, this one was withdrawn in Versailles, where he lived in the retirement. It was a conductor of a higher talent and an excellent man.