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Eugène Scribe

Augustin Eugène Scribe (24 December 1791 – 20 February 1861) was a prolific French dramatist and librettist whose works, numbering over 400, dominated Parisian theater for more than three decades during the Restoration and July Monarchy eras.^[1]^[2] Renowned for revitalizing vaudeville and pioneering the well-made play (pièce bien faite), a tightly constructed dramatic form featuring intricate plots, escalating suspense, and logical resolutions, Scribe catered to middle-class audiences with entertaining, socially reflective stories devoid of romantic excess or overt political radicalism.^[3]^[4] His innovations in playwriting and libretto composition profoundly influenced 19th-century European theater and opera, establishing him as a cornerstone figure in popular dramatic arts.^[1] Born in Paris to a middle-class family of silk merchants, Scribe lost his father in infancy and was raised by his mother, initially groomed for a legal career but drawn instead to the stage from his teenage years.^[3] His debut play in 1810 was a failure, but early efforts largely failed until 1815, when he began collaborating on vaudevilles—light comedies with songs—that captured contemporary Parisian life and propelled his rise to fame.^[1]^[3] By the 1820s, Scribe had shifted toward more sophisticated comedies and historical dramas for boulevard theaters, amassing wealth and acclaim while avoiding the ideological battles between classicists and romantics.^[2] Scribe's librettos for opera, exceeding 130 in total, marked his most enduring legacy, particularly in the grand opéra genre where he partnered with leading composers to create spectacular works blending music, drama, and spectacle.^[1] Key collaborations included La Dame blanche (1825) with François Boieldieu, which became one of the era's most performed opéras comiques; La Muette de Portici (1828) with Daniel Auber, infamous for sparking the Belgian Revolution; and Meyerbeer's Robert le diable (1831), Les Huguenots (1836), and Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855 with Verdi), all of which exemplified his skill in crafting dynamic scenarios with political undertones and emotional variety to complement musical scores.^[1] Elected to the Académie française in 1836, Scribe married in 1839 and continued producing until his death in Paris, leaving a vast oeuvre that shaped theatrical conventions for generations.^[5]^[1]

Biography

Early Life and Education

Augustin Eugène Scribe was born on December 24, 1791, in Paris, into a middle-class family of silk merchants. His father, a silk merchant operating from the Rue Saint-Denis near Les Halles, died shortly after Scribe's birth, leaving his mother to manage the household and ensure his upbringing amid the social upheavals of post-Revolutionary France.^[6]^[7] Scribe received his early formal education at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, a renowned Parisian institution, where he studied for nearly a decade and distinguished himself academically. It was here that he developed a lasting friendship with fellow student Germain Delavigne, whose literary interests would later play a pivotal role in shaping Scribe's path. Destined for a legal career by his family's expectations, Scribe pursued further studies in law at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, even apprenticing in the office of notary M. de Merville, where future writers Honoré de Balzac and Jules Janin would later serve as apprentices.^[8]^[7] The death of his mother in 1807 provided Scribe with a modest inheritance that freed him from immediate financial pressures, prompting a decisive turn away from law toward the theater, bolstered by Delavigne's encouragement and their shared passion for dramatic arts. In his late teens and early twenties, during the closing years of the 1800s, Scribe began experimenting with amateur writing, producing unpublished sketches and short pieces that reflected his growing fascination with playwriting.^[9]

Rise to Prominence

Scribe entered the professional theater scene in 1810 with his debut one-act vaudeville Le Prétendu par hasard, ou L'Occasion fait le larron, staged anonymously at the Théâtre des Variétés, where it met with failure. He achieved modest successes shortly thereafter with Les Derviches in 1811 and L'Auberge, ou Les brigands sans le savoir in 1812, both vaudevilles co-written with Germain Delavigne for the Théâtre du Vaudeville. In 1813, Scribe penned his first libretto for the opéra-comique Le Chambre à coucher, ou Une demi-heure de Richelieu.^[10] Through early vaudeville collaborations with Delavigne, Delestre-Poirson, and others such as Dupin and Desaugiers, Scribe produced over 20 works by 1820, honing his craft in light comedic forms while gradually shifting toward more substantial dramatic structures. These partnerships laid the groundwork for his emerging role in French theater, including a long-term association with composer Daniel Auber that would define much of his later operatic output.^[11] By the late 1810s, Scribe began exploring more serious genres, incorporating supernatural elements in plays such as Le Fantôme (1817).^[10]

Peak Career

During the 1830s and 1840s, Eugène Scribe reached the zenith of his career as a playwright and librettist, solidifying his reputation as the preeminent figure in French theater through prolific output and innovative collaborations. Elected to the Académie Française on November 27, 1834, to replace Antoine-Vincent Arnault, he was formally received on January 28, 1836, by Abel-François Villemain, marking his ascension to intellectual elite status. This period saw Scribe produce a substantial portion of his extensive oeuvre, contributing to a career total exceeding 400 dramatic pieces, many of which exemplified his mastery of the well-made play structure with intricate plots and suspenseful revelations.^[12]^[13] Scribe's librettos for grand opera achieved particular acclaim, most notably his collaboration with Giacomo Meyerbeer on Robert le diable (1831), a five-act opera premiered at the Paris Opéra with libretto co-written by Scribe and Germain Delavigne, which introduced supernatural elements and spectacular staging that captivated audiences. Similarly, Le Prophète (1849), another Meyerbeer-Scribe partnership with Émile Deschamps, premiered on April 16 at the Salle Le Peletier and explored themes of religious fanaticism through its dramatic narrative, further cementing Scribe's influence on the genre. His adaptations extended to Italian composers, including the scenario for Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula (1831), derived from Scribe's La Somnambule, and the libretto for Daniel Auber’s Le Philtre (1831), which Felice Romani adapted for Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore.^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17] In spoken drama, Scribe excelled in political comedies and historical pieces that dissected power dynamics with wit and precision. Le Verre d'eau, ou Les effets et les causes (1840), a five-act comedy premiered on November 17 at the Théâtre-Français, satirized court intrigue during Queen Anne's reign, illustrating how minor incidents could precipitate major historical shifts. Other works from this era, such as historical dramas blending factual events with dramatic tension, reinforced his status as a leading playwright-librettist. Personally, Scribe married in 1839, a union that provided stability amid his intense professional demands.^[18]

Later Life and Death

In the 1850s, Scribe maintained his prolific output amid shifting theatrical trends, co-authoring the comedy Bataille de dames with Ernest Legouvé in 1851, a work that premiered at the Théâtre-Français and became a hallmark of his intricate plotting and character-driven intrigue.^[19] He also contributed to grand opera with the libretto for Giuseppe Verdi's Les Vêpres siciliennes, completed in collaboration with Charles Duveyrier and first performed at the Paris Opéra on June 13, 1855, blending historical drama with Verdi's dramatic scoring. Scribe's final major project was the libretto for Giacomo Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, a long-gestating opera on the explorer Vasco da Gama that he revised extensively in his later years; Meyerbeer completed the score after Scribe's death, and it premiered posthumously at the Paris Opéra on April 28, 1865, marking a capstone to their decades-long partnership.^[20] Throughout this period, however, Scribe encountered pointed critiques from figures like Théophile Gautier, who lambasted his dramas for their superficiality, absence of poetic depth, and pandering to bourgeois sensibilities through mechanical wit and contrived situations.^[13] Scribe died suddenly on February 20, 1861, in Paris at the age of 69, succumbing to a stroke while riding home in his carriage after lunch with friends.^[13] He was buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery, division 35. His passing prompted widespread tributes, including an eulogy by Octave Feuillet at the French Academy, where he was hailed as the inventor of the comédie-vaudeville and a pivotal force in French opera; contemporary accounts in the press, such as The New York Times, lauded him as France's most prolific and versatile playwright.^[13]^[6]

Dramatic Works

Plays

Eugène Scribe's non-musical dramatic output was vast and influential, encompassing approximately 130 solo-authored plays alongside numerous collaborative vaudevilles, contributing to over 200 total stage works excluding librettos.^[11]^[21] His early works revitalized the vaudeville genre, a form of light, satirical comedy featuring spoken dialogue interspersed with popular songs, which he expanded from one-act sketches to multi-act structures while reducing reliance on musical elements to emphasize plot intricacies.^[11]^[13] These pieces, often produced at theaters like the Gymnase Dramatique, catered to bourgeois audiences with witty social commentary and mechanical plot devices that foreshadowed his later innovations.^[22] Scribe's oeuvre evolved significantly from these effervescent vaudevilles toward more ambitious historical and social dramas, reflecting his maturation as a craftsman of the "well-made play."^[13] In the 1830s and 1840s, he shifted to five-act comedies and tragedies that intertwined personal intrigues with larger political or historical contexts, employing meticulous exposition, escalating complications, and contrived resolutions to heighten dramatic tension.^[11] This progression is evident in key examples such as Le Verre d'eau (1840), a sparkling comedy set at the court of Queen Anne, where a spilled glass of water cascades into diplomatic upheaval, illustrating how trivial incidents propel grand events.^[11] Similarly, Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849, co-authored with Ernest Legouvé), a poignant tragedy depicting the ill-fated romance of an 18th-century actress entangled with nobility, blends emotional depth with Scribe's signature plot machinations.^[23] Bataille de dames (1851, also with Legouvé), a romantic comedy of rivalry and deception among women vying for affection, exemplifies his later domestic focus while maintaining structural precision.^[24] These techniques in Scribe's plays, such as hidden identities and timely revelations, paralleled those in his librettos but prioritized spoken dialogue over musical integration. During his lifetime, his works dominated Parisian stages, with frequent productions at the Comédie-Française and Gymnase, amassing thousands of performances and influencing European theater.^[11] However, modern revivals of his non-musical plays remain rare, confined mostly to academic or niche productions, as their formulaic style has yielded to more naturalistic drama, though occasional stagings highlight their enduring craftsmanship.^[25]

Librettos

Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, authoring over 120 librettos for works by 48 different composers.^[26] His collaborations spanned a wide range of musical styles and genres, from opéra comique to grand opéra, and he often worked with leading figures of the era to craft texts that integrated dramatic tension, spectacle, and musical opportunities. Scribe's librettos emphasized clear narrative structures, emotional climaxes, and scenic effects, making them highly adaptable to the operatic stage. Scribe's most extensive partnership was with composer Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, for whom he wrote or co-wrote 39 librettos over four decades, beginning in the 1820s.^[27] Among these, La Muette de Portici (1828, co-authored with Germain Delavigne) stands out as a pioneering work, marking the birth of French grand opéra with its fusion of historical drama, revolutionary themes, and integrated ballet scenarios that advanced the role of dance within opera. The libretto introduced supernatural motifs, such as the ominous volcanic eruption symbolizing divine retribution, alongside vivid crowd scenes and pantomime elements to heighten emotional and visual impact.^[28] Scribe also penned several librettos for Giacomo Meyerbeer, including the grand operas Les Huguenots (1836), Le Prophète (1849), and L'Africaine (1865, posthumously premiered), which exemplified his skill in weaving large-scale historical narratives with personal conflicts.^[29] In Les Huguenots, Scribe innovated by centering political intrigue around the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, culminating in the dramatic re-enactment of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre to underscore themes of tolerance and fanaticism.^[30] Beyond these key associations, Scribe contributed librettos to operas by other prominent composers, such as Gioachino Rossini's Le Comte Ory (1828, co-authored with Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson), Giuseppe Verdi's Les Vêpres siciliennes (1855, co-authored with Charles Duveyrier), and Gaetano Donizetti's La Favorite (1840).^[1] These works showcased his versatility, adapting Italian bel canto traditions to French sensibilities or incorporating exotic locales and moral dilemmas. Many of Scribe's librettos remain in active repertoire at major opera houses worldwide, with Les Huguenots and La Muette de Portici frequently revived for their enduring dramatic power and influence on the genre.^[15]

Adaptations

Scribe's dramatic works have inspired numerous adaptations across film, television, and other media, with over 30 film versions documented from the early 20th century onward.^[31] One early example is the 1916 silent film The Dumb Girl of Portici, directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber, which adapts the opera La Muette de Portici (libretto by Scribe and Germain Delavigne), starring Anna Pavlova as the mute heroine Fenella amid a Neapolitan revolt.^[32] The play Adrienne Lecouvreur (co-written with Ernest Legouvé) has seen multiple cinematic interpretations, including the 1928 American silent Dream of Love directed by Fred Niblo with Joan Crawford, and the 1938 French-German co-production Adrienne Lecouvreur starring Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay, focusing on the tragic romance of the 18th-century actress.^[33]^[34] Another notable adaptation is the 1960 German film Das Glas Wasser (A Glass of Water), directed by Helmut Käutner and based on Scribe's comedy Le Verre d'eau, depicting intrigue at Queen Anne's court with Gustaf Gründgens and Liselotte Pulver.^[35] While Scribe's non-musical plays have been seldom revived on stage in the 20th and 21st centuries, his librettos for grand operas have sustained musical adaptations and productions post-1900, keeping his narratives alive through performance.^[9] These include ongoing revivals of works like Les Huguenots (music by Giacomo Meyerbeer; libretto by Scribe and Émile Deschamps), staged at the Opéra de Marseille in 2023, the Mariinsky Theatre in 2024 and May 2025, Fra Diavolo (music by Daniel Auber; libretto by Scribe) at Pacific Opera Project in November 2025, and Le Comte Ory (music by Gioachino Rossini; libretto by Scribe and Delestre-Poirson) at the Merola Opera Program in August 2025, exploring religious conflict during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.^[36]^[37]^[38]^[39] Similarly, La Juive (music by Fromental Halévy; libretto by Scribe and Germain Delavigne) received productions at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2022 and Opera Australia in Sydney in 2022, addressing themes of identity and persecution in a 16th-century Swiss setting.^[40]^[41] Adriana Lecouvreur (music by Francesco Cilea, based on Scribe's play) continues to be performed, with recent stagings at the Opéra de Lyon in 2023–2024 and Teatro Real in Madrid in 2024, highlighting the rivalry between an actress and a princess.^[42]^[43] No major new film or television adaptations of Scribe's works have emerged between 2020 and 2025, though his opera librettos support regular international productions that adapt his original texts to contemporary interpretations.^[31] Scribe's "well-made play" structure, emphasizing tight plotting, cause-and-effect progression, and dramatic reversals, has profoundly influenced screenwriting, forming the basis for the three-act model prevalent in modern cinema and television.^[44] This technique, refined through his hundreds of plays, prioritized suspense and resolution over character depth, shaping narrative formulas adopted by filmmakers from the silent era to Hollywood's studio system.^[45]

Style and Technique

Well-Made Play

The well-made play, known in French as the pièce bien faite, emerged as a hallmark of 19th-century French theater through Eugène Scribe's innovations around 1825. This structural formula prioritized meticulous craftsmanship to captivate audiences with suspense and surprise, diverging from earlier dramatic traditions by emphasizing plot mechanics over poetic or emotional depth. Scribe, who authored nearly 400 works, refined this approach to create commercially successful plays that dominated European stages for decades.^[46] Central to the well-made play is its concise plotting, which builds through artificial complications—often contrived obstacles like hidden motives or timely interruptions—to generate tension. These escalate via peripeteia, or sudden reversals of fortune, where apparent victories turn to defeats or vice versa, heightening drama before culminating in logical resolutions that neatly disentangle all conflicts. The structure typically unfolds in three acts: an initial setup, a rising action of intrigues, and a denouement that restores order.^[47]^[46] Exposition is efficiently handled through devices such as intercepted letters, concealed secrets, or overheard conversations, revealing backstory without halting momentum. This leads to climactic confrontations where protagonists face off against antagonists, often in a single scene of high stakes, before the moral resolution affirms conventional values like honor or justice, providing satisfying closure. Such elements ensured the play's artificiality served entertainment, with every incident causally linked to propel the narrative.^[46]^[44] Scribe's Le Verre d’eau (1840) exemplifies this formula: the plot hinges on a spilled glass of water that exposes Queen Anne's favoritism, intertwining a romantic subplot between servants Masham and Abigail with political machinations by Bolingbroke to regain power. Secrets unravel through letters and eavesdropping, leading to peripeteia as alliances shift dramatically, before a climactic confrontation and resolution restore equilibrium, all driven by the initial trivial incident.^[48] In contrast to the era's Romantic dramas, which favored passionate individualism, historical spectacle, and loose structures as seen in Victor Hugo's works, Scribe's model imposed rational, clockwork precision to prioritize audience pleasure over ideological fervor.^[47]

Themes and Innovations

Scribe's dramatic works frequently explored themes of social intrigue and political machinations, often portraying the interplay between personal ambitions and larger power structures. In plays like Le Verre d'eau (The Glass of Water, 1840), he depicted courtly rivalries where a seemingly trivial incident escalates into a diplomatic crisis, highlighting the fragility of political alliances.^[22] Similarly, gender roles emerged as a recurring motif, with women navigating societal constraints through cunning and resilience, as seen in the machinations surrounding marriage and inheritance in bourgeois comedies.^[22] Above all, Scribe prioritized entertainment, crafting narratives that favored accessible spectacle and moral resolution over profound philosophical depth, aligning with the tastes of a rising middle-class audience.^[13] Central to Scribe's storytelling were archetypal characters that embodied these themes, including clever heroines who outmaneuver adversaries through intellect and charm. For instance, in La Camaraderie (1836), the protagonist Zoé employs wit to expose corruption and secure her position, exemplifying the resourceful female lead who resolves conflicts via ingenuity rather than force.^[22] Scheming villains, often driven by greed or hypocrisy, provided contrast, such as Césarine in the same play, whose ambitious plots unravel under scrutiny. Resolutions typically hinged on wit and revelation, reinforcing a worldview where cleverness triumphs over deceit.^[22] Scribe introduced several innovations that expanded theatrical possibilities, particularly in opera librettos where he integrated ballet to advance the narrative and heighten emotional impact. In La Muette de Portici (1828), the mute character Fenella communicates her plight through dance, blending mime, song, and choreography into a cohesive dramatic form that influenced grand opéra.^[49] He also employed historical and exotic settings to offer veiled commentary on contemporary events, thereby critiquing imperialism without direct confrontation. Additionally, his collaborative approach enhanced scripting efficiency; partnering with around 50 co-authors, Scribe produced over 300 works, dividing labor to streamline production while maintaining a unified voice, as in his joint efforts on Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849).^[13] Early in his career, Scribe's humor drew from vaudeville traditions, featuring light farce and sentimental songs in pieces like La Demoiselle à marier (1820), which relied on exaggerated situations for broad appeal.^[22] Over time, he shifted toward more sophisticated comedy, as evidenced in later five-act works such as Le Verre d'eau, where intricate social satires replaced overt slapstick with nuanced explorations of ambition and folly.^[13] This evolution allowed his plays to transition from popular entertainments to vehicles for subtle critique, broadening their appeal across theaters like the Gymnase and Comédie-Française.^[22]

Legacy

Influence on Theater

Eugène Scribe's development of the well-made play profoundly shaped subsequent playwrights, particularly through its emphasis on intricate plotting, clear exposition, and climactic revelations. In France, Alexandre Dumas fils directly adopted Scribe's formula in works like La Dame aux Camélias (1852), which featured tightly constructed narratives driven by hidden secrets and moral dilemmas, establishing a model for social drama that built on Scribe's commercial success.^[50] Similarly, Victorien Sardou modeled his early career on Scribe, producing well-made plays such as Nos Intimes (1861) and Les Pattes de Mouche (1860) at the Théâtre Français, where structured exposition and cause-and-effect progression mirrored Scribe's techniques before Sardou adapted them into melodramas like Fedora (1882).^[50] This influence extended to English theater, where Arthur Wing Pinero emulated the form in plays like The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), incorporating Scribe's artificial plotting to explore contemporary social issues, thereby revitalizing British drama in the late 19th century.^[51] Scribe's impact also manifested indirectly through reactions against his conventions, inspiring innovations in dramatic realism. Henrik Ibsen, while critiquing the superficiality of Scribe's artificiality, nonetheless employed elements of the well-made play in early works like A Doll's House (1879), using a central secret—Nora's forged loan—and withheld revelations via letters to drive the plot toward a climactic unmasking of character flaws, though Ibsen infused it with psychological depth to subvert the formula.^[44] Oscar Wilde similarly drew on Scribe's tradition in comedies such as Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), assimilating French motifs of hidden pasts and ironic twists while adding witty dialogue, positioning his adventuress characters like Mrs. Erlynne as heirs to Scribe's dramatic archetypes.^[51] The well-made play's principles spread to English and American theater by the late 19th century, becoming a staple of professional stages and influencing the transition from melodrama to modern drama. In England, translations and adaptations of Scribe's works, alongside those of his followers, facilitated a dramatic renaissance, with playwrights like Henry Arthur Jones adopting the structure for problem plays that addressed Victorian society.^[51] Across the Atlantic, American theaters embraced the form for its audience appeal, as seen in productions of Sardou's adaptations and original works that employed Scribe-inspired plotting to achieve commercial viability, helping establish a robust professional theater industry.^[50] Scribe's librettos for grand opera further extended his influence, popularizing a narrative structure of spectacle, historical drama, and emotional arcs that informed modern musical theater. Collaborating with composers like Giacomo Meyerbeer on Les Huguenots (1836) and Fromental Halévy on La Juive (1835), Scribe crafted texts with recitatives linking arias, romantic themes, and local color, which defined the genre's five-act format and grandiose staging.^[52] This approach influenced the integration of plot-driven songs and ensemble numbers in 20th-century musicals, where librettists like Oscar Hammerstein II echoed Scribe's balance of drama and musicality in works such as Show Boat (1927).^[52] Scribe's legacy endures in screenplay writing and commercial drama, where his emphasis on three-act structures and "dramatic punches"—climactic scene endings—became foundational to Hollywood's narrative conventions. Screenwriting manuals from the studio era, such as Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing (1946), explicitly referenced playwriting traditions like Scribe's to teach tight plotting and audience engagement, shaping films from the 1930s onward.^[53] This commercial focus persists in contemporary scripting practices, prioritizing efficient storytelling for mass appeal in both theater and film.^[53]

Critical Reception

During the 19th century, Eugène Scribe's dramatic works garnered significant praise for their meticulous craftsmanship, particularly from critic Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, who in his 1840 review of Le Verre d'eau in the Revue des Deux Mondes lauded Scribe's unparalleled skill in assembling complex intrigues that ensured popular success and theatrical efficiency.^[54] Sainte-Beuve highlighted Scribe's ability to balance entertainment with structural precision, viewing him as an ideal representative of bourgeois theater that catered effectively to contemporary audiences.^[55] However, Romantic critics like Théophile Gautier sharply contrasted this admiration by decrying Scribe's lack of poetic depth and stylistic originality, famously questioning how an author devoid of lyricism and true artistic flair could dominate the stage, a critique encapsulated in Gautier's repeated laments over Scribe's "absence de style."^[56] Scribe himself responded to such attacks in his prefaces and essays, defending the theater primarily as a source of amusement rather than moral or intellectual instruction; as he articulated, audiences attend "for relaxation and amusement, not for instruction or correction," positioning his approach as a deliberate rejection of didacticism in favor of accessible entertainment. In the 20th century, critical views underwent a notable reassessment, with scholars recognizing Scribe's innovations in plot construction as foundational to modern plot-driven drama, influencing playwrights like Henrik Ibsen and Arthur Wing Pinero by establishing conventions of exposition, climax, and resolution that shaped commercial theater.^[57] This shift emphasized his technical legacy over earlier dismissals of superficiality, though debates persisted on the balance between innovation and artistic merit. Scholarship on Scribe has continued, albeit somewhat limited, with recent contributions including Perry Gethner's 2023 overview in EBSCO Research Starters and a 2024 article in Nineteenth-Century Studies examining Scribe's vaudeville influences on Ibsen, underscoring his enduring but underexplored legacy as of 2025.^[22]^[58]

References

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Eugène SCRIBE | https://www.bruzanemediabase.com/en
Eugène Scribe was the most widely performed, most popular dramatist of his time. Throughout his long career—from his debut in 1810 to his death in 1861—he ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
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19th Century Authors - Brown University Library
Scribe, Eugène, 1791-1861. His comedies for the boulevard and dramas were very popular during the Restauration period and the July Monarchy. He is best ...
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Eugène Scribe - Discography of American Historical Recordings
Born to a middle-class Parisian family, Scribe was intended for a legal career, but was drawn to the theatre, and began writing plays while still in his teens.Missing: reliable | Show results with:reliable
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Introduction to Theatre -- 19th-Century Melodrama
Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) (pronounced "Schreeb"). – French – over 300 plays. His plays gave the appearance of having tightly woven plots unifies by ...
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Newly Acquired - La Juive - HUC
The librettos to both operas were written by the prolific Eugène Scribe, who would be elected to the Académie Française later that year. That both were ...
[6]
Death of Eugene Scribe. - The New York Times
In 1836 SCRIBE was elected to one of the famous forty chairs in the Academie Francaise. People who thought of the "workman" said it should have been a bench, ...
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Stones of Paris in History and ...
The grave, melancholy mother died in the early summer of 1821, and her ... Scribe, Eugène, I., commemorative tablet of, 217. Sellier, M. Charles, I., 10.
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Scribe, un camarade barbiste
Insufficient relevant content. The provided content only includes an iframe embed link to https://books.openedition.org/pur/78221 with no accessible text or details about Eugène Scribe’s early life, education at Collège Sainte-Barbe, family background, mother, or initial theater interests.
[9]
Scribe, Eugène | Encyclopedia.com
Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific and popular French dramatists of the nineteenth century. Although his works are seldom produced today, Scribe is ...Missing: reliable | Show results with:reliable
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Eugène SCRIBE | Académie française
### Summary of Eugène Scribe’s Early Career and Works (1810s–Early 1820s)
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Eugène Scribe | Romanticism, Comedies, Librettist - Britannica
Eugène Scribe was a French dramatist whose works dominated the Parisian stage for more than 30 years. Scribe began his career as a playwright by ...Missing: reliable | Show results with:reliable
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Eugène SCRIBE Élu en 1834 au fauteuil 13 - Académie française |
Eugène SCRIBE Élu en 1834 au fauteuil 13. N°369. Commandeur de la Légion d ... Œuvres. 1811 Les Dervis - vaudeville. 1812 L'Auberge - vaudeville. 1813 ...
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Eugène Scribe - The Atlantic
Scribe was the only French dramatist of prominence who took no part in the struggle between the Romanticists and the Classicists, who went quietly on in his own ...Missing: sources | Show results with:sources
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Giacomo Meyerbeer - Robert le Diable (Critical Edition) - Ricordi
Edited by Wolfgang Kühnhold. Opéra en cinq actes. Libretto: Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne (in French) ... Meyerbeer's first French opera, “Robert le Diable ...
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Giacomo Meyerbeer - Le Prophète (Critical Edition) - Ricordi
Edited by Matthias Brzoska. Opéra en cinq actes. Libretto: Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps (in French) World premiere: 16.04.1849, Paris
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Plot and Creation: La Sonnambula - Metropolitan Opera
French playwright Eugène Scribe's comedy La Somnambule premieres at Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris. 1825. Bellini graduates from the conservatory and is ...
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L'elisir d'amore in a nutshell - Opera North
Dec 11, 2015 · Romani chose to use and modify an existing French text about a love potion, Le philtre (literally 'The Potion') by Eugène Scribe for this new ...
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Eugène Scribe Biography - eNotes.com
Examine the life, times, and work of Eugène Scribe through detailed author biographies on eNotes.Missing: reliable sources
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Bataille de dames - Eugène Scribe, Ernest Legouvé - Google Books
Authors, Eugène Scribe, Ernest Legouvé ; Publisher, Velhagen & Klasing, 1851 ; Original from, the Bavarian State Library ; Digitized, Feb 4, 2009 ; Length, 88 pages.
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Giacomo Meyerbeer - Vasco de Gama (L'Africaine) (Critical Edition)
Edited by Jürgen Selk. Opéra en cinq actes. Libretto: Eugène Scribe (in French) World premiere: 28.04.1865, Paris “Such a mind does not disappear from the ...
[21]
Musical Representations of the Seraglio in Eugène Scribe's ...
Abstract. Among the more than 215 vaudeville plays Eugène Scribe (1791–1861) wrote for Parisian stages between 1810 and 1852, “L' ...
[22]
Eugène Scribe | Research Starters - EBSCO
Augustin-Eugène Scribe, son of a Parisian silk merchant, was born during the early years of the French Revolution. His father having died while he was an infant ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
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Adrienne Lecouvreur | work by Scribe - Britannica
In Eugène Scribe. His Adrienne Lecouvreur (1849), a melodrama about an actress who loves a nobleman, unaware of his high rank and true identity, ...
[24]
Ibsen, Gilbert, and Scribe's "Bataille de Dames" - jstor
Augustin-Eugene Scribe and Ernest. Legouve's romantic comedy, Bataille de. Dames (1851),1 in particular. By the middle of the nineteenth century Scribe was ...
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THEATER REVIEW;Getting to Know Scribe As More Than a Street
Dec 25, 1995 · Alone and in collaboration, he had written 300 to 400 plays and the librettos for operas by Verdi, Bellini, Donizetti and Meyerbeer, among ...
[26]
Le Comte Ory at the Rossini Opera Festival - Opera Today
Aug 16, 2022 · ... libretto, the work of the famed French dramatist Eugène Scribe (120 librettos for 48 different composers). Le Comte Ory distinguishes ...
[27]
https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/102840/Auber_D._F._E
[28]
About This Recording - Naxos Records
After Le Maçon (1825) and La Muette de Portici (1828), Auber's life was filled with success. ... The melody opens the ballet and becomes a recurrent motif in the ...
[29]
Meyerbeer: Robert Ie Diable and Les Huguenots (Chapter 11)
... collaboration between Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne, who was responsible for the first sketches. He borrowed the title Robert Ie Diable from a Breton ...
[30]
198. Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer) - The Opera Scribe
Jan 7, 2021 · Opéra in 5 acts; Composer: Giacomo Meyerbeer; Libretto: Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps (with additional ideas, revisions and words by ...
[31]
Eugène Scribe - Soirée au Louvre Research Project
Eugène Scribe (1791 - 1861), playwright author, librettist ... (1839). Pantheon Charivarique (1839). His plays and ... married in 1842, and her dowry ...
[32]
The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916) - IMDb
Rating 6.4/10 (332) The Dumb Girl of Portici is based on an Auber & Scribe opera, but obviously as a silent film the music isn't there to help it out. It is filmed mostly in ...
[33]
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018850/
[34]
Adrienne Lecouvreur (1938) - IMDb
Rating 5.2/10 (20) Pierre Fresnay and his wife Yvonne Printemps teamed up for this ill-fated love story between a noble officer and a commoner thespian.Missing: Eugène Scribe adaptations
[35]
Das Glas Wasser (1960) - IMDb
Rating 6.7/10 (122) In early-18th-century London, Queen Anne, the last of the House of Stuart, is a weak ruler. She is committed to peace in the War of Spanish Succession.
[36]
Les Huguenots - Marseille Opera house (2023) (Production
The 2023 Marseille production of Les Huguenots, composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, was created on 03/06/2023, with performances on June 3, 6, 8, and 11.Missing: 2024 | Show results with:2024
[37]
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots. opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Performed in French (the performance ... 2024. Running time 4 hours 10 minutes. The performance has two intervals.Missing: 2023 | Show results with:2023
[38]
La Juive - Grand Théâtre de Genève
Opera by Fromental Halévy, from September 15 to 28, 2022. Musical Director Marc Minkowski, Stage Director David Alden.
[39]
La juive, Opera Australia, Mar 8-25 2025, Sydney City | Operabase
Mar 9, 2025 · A young couple begin a dangerous, passionate affair. In their world, a Jew cannot love a Christian. The punishment is death.Missing: 2020-2025 | Show results with:2020-2025
[40]
Adriana Lecouvreur – Opéra national de Lyon
An opera by · Musical director · Head of Chorus · Adriana Lecouvreur · Maurizio, Count of Saxony · Princess de Bouillon · Michonnet · Prince de Bouillon.
[41]
Teatro Real 2024-25 Review: Adriana Lecouvreur (Cast A)
Oct 1, 2024 · The Spanish opera coliseum opened its 2024-25 season with the worldwide recognized production of Francesco Cilea's “Adriana Lecouvreur” by ...
[42]
A Well-Made Doll's House: The Influence of Eugene Scribe on the ...
Dec 24, 2000 · Nora, perhaps due to her desperation, forgets her tried-and-true technique of flattering his ego to get what she wants and instead blurts out ...
[43]
A History of Three-Act Structure - Screentakes
Dec 24, 2012 · Sardou not only utilized the tripartite structural progression developed by Scribe but he actually had his curtain going up and down only ...
[44]
Well-made & not-so-well-made - The New Criterion
The term “well-made play” was coined in about 1825 by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe, whose ideal of tightly plotted plays (complete with exposition, ...
[45]
[PDF] The persistence of the 'well made play' - CentAUR
In direct contrast, the well-made play is based on a structure comprised of the following: exposition, complication, development, crisis and dénouement. Its ...
[46]
The Well-Made Play of Eugène Scribe - jstor
and the study of Scribe's statements and plays shows us how he chose to go a it. He offered his audience involvement and excitement while they were theater ...Missing: career scholarly
[47]
The Libretto That Started a Revolution - The New York Times
Apr 10, 2012 · But “La Muette,” which is currently enjoying a rare revival at ... Eugène Scribe, at the Opéra Comique in Paris. When the opera opened ...Missing: plays | Show results with:plays
[48]
[PDF] The Exotic in Nineteenth-Century French Opera, Part 1
Jan 7, 2022 · 46. The work's librettist, Eugène Scribe, clearly relished the opportunity to weigh in on an important current issue. Two years later, he.
[49]
The Theory of the Theatre, and Other Principles of Dramatic Criticism
Oct 28, 2024 · Under the influence of Eugène Scribe, Sardou began his career at the Théatre Français with a wide range of well-made plays, varying in scope ...
[50]
From Dumas fils's Étrangère to Wilde's Aventurière: French Theatric...
Zeinab M. Raafat, The Influence of Scribe and Sardou upon English Dramatists in the 19th Century, with Special reference to Pinero, Jones and Wilde, PhD.
[51]
https://journals.openedition.org/cve/2724
[52]
Dramatic Punches»: The Legacy of Playwriting in the Screenwriting ...
Jan 13, 2021 · This article attempts to fill in certain gaps in the history of the theorization of screenwriting practices by juxtaposing statements found in ...
[53]
poètes et romanciers modernes de la france. xli. m. eugène scribe ...
EUGÈNE SCRIBE. (LE VERRE D'EAU). Sainte-Beuve · Revue des Deux Mondes (1829-1971) , QUATRIÈME SÉRIE, Vol. 24, No. 5 (1er DÉCEMBRE 1840), pp. 714-730 (17 pages).
[54]
Scribe : l'histoire en scène - Presses universitaires de Rennes
Sainte-Beuve se fait ainsi l'écho d'un public supposé lassé de l'inflation de l'histoire au théâtre et rend hommage à la modestie d'un dramaturge qui incarne, ...
[55]
[PDF] Eugène Scribe, l'homme sans style ? - HAL-SHS
Dec 19, 2020 · Repris dans SAINTE-BEUVE, Pour la critique, anthologie éditée par Annie PRASSOLOFF et. José-Luis DIAZ, Paris, Gallimard, coll. « folio essais ...
[56]
Cumberland, Kotzebue, Scribe, Simon: Are We Teaching the Wrong ...
Eugene Scribe, and Neil Simon in modern editions. It suggests a reassessment, even an early retirement, of the "Big Five" in modern drama: Ibsen, Chekhov ...Missing: 20th | Show results with:20th