Hector-Jonathan Crémieux
Encyclopedia
Hector-Jonathan Crémieux (10 November 1828 – 30 September 1892) was a French
librettist and playwright
. His best-known work is his collaboration with Ludovic Halévy
for Jacques Offenbach
's Orphée aux Enfers, known in English as Orpheus in the Underworld
.
to a Jewish family - he was related to the lawyer Adolphe Crémieux
. He studied law and then worked in the civil service. His first play, Fiesque (1852) was a historical drama, but before long he started to write comedies and then, in collaboration, operetta
and opéra comique
librettos. His collaborations with Halévy were often written under the joint pseudonym Paul d'Arcy.
In 1887, Crémieux became secretary-general of the Société des Dépôts Comptes Courants, and ceased writing. Five years later, the Société collapsed and he committed suicide in Paris.
For Hervé
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
librettist and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
. His best-known work is his collaboration with Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy
Ludovic Halévy was a French author and playwright. He was half Jewish : his Jewish father had converted to Christianity prior to his birth, to marry his mother, née Alexandrine Lebas.-Biography:Ludovic Halévy was born in Paris...
for Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's Orphée aux Enfers, known in English as Orpheus in the Underworld
Orpheus in the Underworld
Orphée aux enfers is an opéra bouffon , or opéra féerie in its revised version, by Jacques Offenbach. The French text was written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux....
.
Life
Crémieux was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to a Jewish family - he was related to the lawyer Adolphe Crémieux
Adolphe Crémieux
Adolphe Crémieux was a French-Jewish lawyer and statesman, and a staunch defender of the human rights of the Jews of France. - Biography :...
. He studied law and then worked in the civil service. His first play, Fiesque (1852) was a historical drama, but before long he started to write comedies and then, in collaboration, operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
and opéra comique
Opéra comique
Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...
librettos. His collaborations with Halévy were often written under the joint pseudonym Paul d'Arcy.
In 1887, Crémieux became secretary-general of the Société des Dépôts Comptes Courants, and ceased writing. Five years later, the Société collapsed and he committed suicide in Paris.
For Jacques Offenbach
- Le savetier et le financier (1856) - with E About
- Une demoiselle en loterie (1857) - with Louis-Adolphe Jaime
- Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the UnderworldOrpheus in the UnderworldOrphée aux enfers is an opéra bouffon , or opéra féerie in its revised version, by Jacques Offenbach. The French text was written by Ludovic Halévy and later revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux....
) (1858) - with Ludovic Halévy - Geneviève de BrabantGeneviève de BrabantGeneviève de Brabant is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, first performed in Paris in 1859. The plot is based on the medieval legend of Genevieve of Brabant....
(1859) - by Louis-Adolphe Jaime and Etienne TréfeuÉtienne TréfeuÉtienne Victor Tréfeu , was a French librettist, song writer and theatre manager...
(revised by Crémieux with Tréfeu) - La chanson de Fortunio (1861) - with Ludovic Halévy
- Le pont des soupirsLe pont des soupirsLe pont des soupirs is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Hector-Jonathan Cremieux and Ludovic Halévy.-Performance history:...
(1861) - with Ludovic Halévy - M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . .M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le . . .M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le... is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, in one act by Jacques Offenbach and the Duc de Morny...
(1861) - with M de Saint Rémy, E L’Epine and Ludovic Halévy - Le roman comique (1861) - with Ludovic Halévy
- Jacqueline (1862) - with Ludovic Halévy
- Les bergers (1865) - with Philippe GillePhilippe GillePhilippe Gille was a French dramatist and opera librettist. He wrote over twenty librettos between 1857 and 1893, the most famous of which are Massenet's Manon and Delibes' Lakmé.-Librettos by Philippe Gille:...
- Robinson CrusoéRobinson CrusoéRobinson Crusoé is an opéra comique, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach.The French libretto was written by Eugène Cormon and Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, which was loosely adapted from the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, though the work owes more to British pantomime than to the book...
(1867) - with Eugène Cormon - La jolie parfumeuseLa jolie parfumeuseLa jolie parfumeuse is an opéra comique in three acts of 1873 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was by Hector Crémieux and Ernest Blum.-Performance history:...
(1873) - with Ernest BlumErnest Blum-Biography:He made his debut as a writer at the age of sixteen with Une femme qui mord. As a journalist, he was associated with Le Charivari, Le Rappel, Le Gaulois, and other publications. Many of his dramatic works were written in collaboration with Clairville, Flan, Monnier, Brisharre, Eugène... - BagatelleBagatelle (opera)Bagatelle is a one-act opéra-comique by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Hector Crémieux and Ernest Blum.It was first produced on 21 May 1874 at Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens under the direction of the composer.-Roles:-Recordings:*...
(1874) - with Ernest Blum - La foire Saint-Laurent (1877) - with A de Saint-Albin
For HervéHervé (composer)Hervé , real name Louis Auguste Florimond Ronger, was a French singer, composer, librettist, conductor and scene painter, whom Ernest Newman, following Reynaldo Hahn, credited with inventing the genre of operetta in Paris.-Life:Hervé was born in Houdain near Arras...
- Le petit Faust (1869) - with Louis-Adolphe Jaime
- Les Turcs (1869) - with Louis-Adolphe Jaime
- Le trône d'Écosse (1871) - with Louis-Adolphe Jaime
- La veuve du Malabar (1873) - with A. Delacour
- La belle poule (1875) - with A de Saint-Albin
Plays
Amongst the plays written by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux are:- Fiesque: drame en cinq actes et huit tableaux, en vers, d'après Schiller (1852) - with his brother, Émile Crémieux, and based on Friedrich SchillerFriedrich SchillerJohann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
's play Die Verschwörung des Fiesco zu Genua - Germaine: drame en cinq actes et huit tableaux (1858) - with Adolphe d' Ennery and based on Edmond About's novel of the same name
- La voie sacrée, ou, Les étapes de la gloire: drame militaire en cinq actes (1859) - with Eugène Woestyn and Ernest Bourget
- Le pied de mouton (1859) - with Charles-Théodore Cogniard and Jean-Hippolyte Cogniard
- L'Abbe Constantin (1882) - with Pierre Decourcelle and based on Ludovic Halévy's novel of the same name
- Autour du mariage (1883) - with the Comtesse de MartelSibylle Gabrielle Marie Antoinette Riqueti de MirabeauSibylle Aimée Marie-Antoinette Gabrielle de Riquetti de Mirabeau, Comtesse de Martel de Janville was a French writer who wrote under the pseudonym GYP....
and based on her novel of the same name
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Crémieux, Hector-Jonathan, written by Isidore SingerIsidore SingerIsidore Singer was an editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man.-Biography:...
and J. Fuchs