Halevy was a student of Mehul, Berton and Cherubini at the Paris Conservatoire. He won a second prize at the Prix de Rome of 1817 and a first prize in 1819 with the cantata "Herminie." Continuing to compose, especially for the opera, Halevy traveled to Rome, and then to Vienna where he met Beethoven. Upon his return to Paris "L'Artisan" was produced at the Theatre Feydeay followed by "Clari" at the Theatre des Italiens. Considerable success came with "Le Dilettante d'Avignon" but his real fame and success followed his composition of the serious opera "La Juive" with a libretto by Scribe. Halevy never composed better than this mastepiece although his comic opera "L'eclair" was also quite successful. Most of his compositions flourished including the two grand operas "La reine de Chypre" and "Charles VI." Halevy's compositions were fluent and filled with musical depictions through chromatic brass and swelling strings. The mood and pathos of Charles VI's madness was eloquently executed in his score for that opera. Considering that Halevy's operas were probably overshadowed by the fact that he was a contemporary of Meyerbeer, he nevertheless had a great influence on the rest of musical history (even though his operas, serious and comic, have all but disappeared from the stage). Halevy was a Professor of music at the Paris Conservatoire where he taught harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and composition. The students he taught included Gounod, Masse, Bazin, Bizet, Saint-Saens and Delvedez. A corpus of literature was also left by Halevy including "Souvenirs et portraits" and "Derniers souvenirs et portraits." ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi