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Charles Gounod (1818-1893) was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette. Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851, with the help of Pauline Viardot, but had no great theatrical success until Faust (1859), based on the play by Goethe. This remains his best-known work, and although it took a while to achieve great renown, it eventually became one of the most frequently staged operas of all time. The romantic and highly melodious Roméo et Juliette (based on the Shakespeare play), premiered in 1867, is also performed and recorded now and then, even though it has never come close to matching Faust's popularity. Mireille of 1864, a charming and graceful composition, has been admired by connoisseurs rather than by the general public. Later in his life, Gounod returned to his early religious impulses, writing much religious music. His earlier work included an improvisation of a melody over the C major Prelude (BWV 846) from The Well-Tempered Clavier, to which in 1859 Gounod set the words of Ave Maria, resulting in his composition Ave Maria, a setting that became world-famous. He also wrote a Pontifical Anthem, now the official national anthem of the Vatican City. In 1893, apparently shortly after he had put the finishing touches to a requiem written for his grandson, he died in Saint-Cloud, France. One of his short pieces, Funeral March of a Marionette, became well known as the theme to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.