Text Box:  17. Our next composer was born in France famous for his operas . His name is Charles Francois (Franz wah) Gounod (Goo no), who lived from 1818 to 1893…that’s 75 years. Gounod’s most famous opera is Faust, which first debuted in Paris in 1859, and has played literally thousands of times since. The opera, in fact, was so well-done, that a critic at the time claimed that Gounod couldn’t possibly be its creator. He was immediately challenged to a duel and ended up retracting his contention. Goulding doesn’t rank Doctor Gounod in the top 50 classical composers. Another very famous work by Gounod that you have surely heard in Ave Maria...yes, a work with the same name as Schubert’s. Really many composers wrote Ave Marias...as a tribute to St. Mary. Many people like Gounod’s better than Schubert’s.