Another French composer, versatile and well gifted in orchestral composition, is Clement Philibert Leo Delibes (1848- ). After his education at the Conservatory, and his service as accompanist at the Grand Opera, he received, in 1866, a commission to compose a ballet, "_La Source_," in which he displayed such a wealth of melody and such fortunate rhythm that his talent was henceforth unmistakable. He has since composed a large number of ballets, many of which are known in all parts of the world, such as "Sylvia"; also a large number of songs. His principal opera was "Lakme" (1883). He is a professor at the Conservatory, a member of the Legion of Honor, and the successor of Victor Masse at the Institute. Still another very talented composer of orchestral music is Edouard Victor Antoine Lalo (1823- ), who was originally a violinist in a favorite string quartette. He has composed a large amount of orchestral music, a violin concerto in F (1874), "_Symphonie Espagnole_" (1875), for violin and orchestra, a rhapsody "_Norvegienne_," and many other orchestral works, besides several operas, of which the "_Roi d'Ys_" (1888) is the most important. He received the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1880, and is one of the best of the French composers. Many of his works have been played by Theodore Thomas. Georges Bizet (1838-1875) is best known as the composer of "_Carmen_" (1875). He had previously produced a considerable number of smaller works, which had been but moderately successful. In "_Carmen_," however, he showed qualities of rhythmic and harmonic coloration which promised brilliant results in the future. His career was prematurely cut short by death. He was a fine pianist. The Nestor of still living French composers is M. Charles Ambroise Thomas (1811- ), born at Metz in the same year as Liszt, and only one and two years after Schumann and Chopin. This venerable and highly gifted master early succeeded in catching the ear of the French public, and between 1837, when his "_La Double Echelle_" was performed at the _Opera Comique_, until 1848, he produced a succession of charming light pieces in the taste of the day. There was a sort of middle period in which he wrote several very witty works for the same stage, but the time of his greatest career dates from the production of "_Mignon_" (1866), "_Hamlet_" (1868), and "_Francesca da Rimini_" (1882). He was elected to the Institute in 1851, and at Auber's death in 1871 was made director of the _Conservatoire_, in which important position he has accomplished much toward systematizing and deepening musical education. M. Thomas is a highly cultivated man of the world; tall, slender, fond of physical exercise, he has retained the faculties of an active and very versatile mind to an old age. His opera of "_Mignon_" is probably the one of his productions which will last longest.