And the second best Warner Bros composer, just after Rossini.
[splutter...] How can you have forgotten "What's Opera, Doc?"
You could make a game out of this: spot the composer.
I've even heard some Stravinsky in a Bugs Bunny cartoon; it was something from The Firebird.
They sure don't make 'em like they used to.
He was Polish, despite his parisian history, hence his famous mazurkas.
It was a joke (I think); like saying "Mozart was the greatest Italian Opera composer." (Also true, imho).
To be clear, leaving aside his 'passport' status, he had a French father and a Polish mother. And it's interesting that he made no attempt to ever return to Poland after he'd arrived in Paris as a very young man. I think the French and Polish can make more or less equivalent claims on him.
Sometimes I wish that HN had a "+1, Funny" button like Slashdot does.