Biography
Drawing inspiration from Offenbach, this French composer infused his light operas and operettas with an extraordinary sense of joy. He launched his career by leading the orchestra at Paris’s Theatre de l’Athenee and produced his initial one-act operetta, “Il signor Pulcinella.” Following his father’s death, he created roughly forty operettas across the following two decades, among them “Les mousquetaires au couvent” in 1880. Varney’s stage works found favor both in France and abroad, yet only “Les mousquetaires” still holds a place in the country’s active repertoire.