Education
In 1907 he completed the music for Marcel Gerbidon"s operetta, "Flossie" or "Je m"appelle Flossie.".
In 1907 he completed the music for Marcel Gerbidon"s operetta, "Flossie" or "Je m"appelle Flossie.".
He also used the pseudonum January Sulima. Born in Poland to a musical family, he moved to Paris to complete his studies in conducting and composition in 1899, converting his name to Joseph Szulc. He notably trained under the composer Jules Massenet.
In 1903 he moved to Brussels, where he was made chief conductor at the Théâtre de la Monnaie and saw instant success with his ballet "Ispahan" and several tunes.
In 1908 he adapted Pierre Veber"s comedy "Loute", then in 1914 began the musical comedy "Flup !" to a libretto by Gaston Dumestre, which had a successful premiere in 1920, followed by 5,000 performances. His other successes included "Titin" to a libretto by Gaston Dumestre.
Between the two world wars, he composed nearly twenty musical comedies. Additionally, he wrote songs to poetry of Paul Verlaine (Opus 83) of which one song was recorded by the great tenor, Enrico Caruso.
He wrote some other lieder to German poetry which were published in Berlin during a brief stint there.
One additional Violin Sonata is now available through IMSLP. Many of his operetta scores are available for perusal at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln through a generous gift of Jack Rohkar. Szulc"s song Clair de Lune from his 10 Melodies, Operation 83, has been recorded by French counter tenor Philippe Jaroussky on his album Green – Melodies Francaises.
1920: "Flup !", with a libretto by Gaston Dumestre
1920: "Titin", with a libretto by Gaston Dumestre
1925: "Mannequins", with a libretto by Jacques Bousquet and Henri Falk
1926: "Divin Mensonge", with a libretto by Alex Madis, Pierre Veber and Hugues Delorme.
1945: "Pantoufle", with a libretto by Albert Willemetz.