Victorien Sardou
Encyclopedia
Victorien Sardou was a French
dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play
. He also wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th-century operas such as La Tosca
(1887) on which Giacomo Puccini
's opera Tosca
(1900) is based, and Fedora by Umberto Giordano
, a work that popularized the fedora hat
as well.
on 7 September 1831. The Sardous were settled at Le Cannet
, a village near Cannes
, where they owned an estate, planted with olive tree
s. A night's frost killed all the trees and the family was ruined. Victorien's father, Antoine Léandre Sardou, came to Paris in search of employment. He was in succession a book-keeper at a commercial establishment, a professor of book-keeping, the head of a provincial school, then a private tutor and a schoolmaster in Paris, besides editing grammars, dictionaries and treatises on various subjects. With all these occupations, he hardly succeeded in making a livelihood, and when he retired to his native country, Victorien was left on his own resources. He had begun studying medicine, but had to desist for want of funds. He taught French to foreign pupils: he also gave lessons in Latin, history and mathematics to students, and wrote articles for cheap encyclopaedias.
, Mme de Bawl, who had published novels and enjoyed some reputation in the days of the Restoration, but she could do little for her protege. Victorien Sardou made efforts to attract the attention of Mlle Rachel
, and to win her support by submitting to her a drama, La Reine Ulfra, founded on an old Swedish chronicle. A play of his, La Taverne des étudiants, was produced at the Odéon
on 1 April 1854, but met with a stormy reception, owing to a rumour that the débutant had been instructed and commissioned by the government to insult the students. La Taverne was withdrawn after five nights. Another drama by Sardou, Bernard Palissy, was accepted at the same theatre, but the arrangement was cancelled in consequence of a change in the management. A Canadian play, Fleur de Liane, would have been produced at the Ambigu
but for the death of the manager. Le Bossu, which he wrote for Charles Albert Fechter, did not satisfy the actor; and when the play was successfully produced, the nominal authorship, by some unfortunate arrangement, had been transferred to other men. M Sardou submitted to Adolphe Montigny (Lemoine-Montigny), manager of the Gymnase, a play entitled Paris à l'envers, which contained the love scene, afterwards so famous, in Nos Intimes. Montigny thought fit to consult Eugène Scribe, who was revolted by the scene in question.
In 1857,Sardou felt the pangs of actual want, and his misfortunes culminated in an attack of typhoid fever. He was living in poverty and was dying in his garret
, surrounded with his rejected manuscripts. A lady who was living in the same house unexpectedly came to his assistance. Her name was Mlle de Brécourt. She had theatrical connections, and was a special favourite of Mlle Déjazet. She nursed him, cured him, and, when he was well again, introduced him to her friend. Déjazet had just established the theatre named after her. Every show after La Taverne was put on at this theatre. Then fortune began to smile on the author. Nine years after getting married to his first wife, she would pass away.
It is true that Candide, the first play he wrote for Mlle Déjazet, was stopped by the censor, but Les Premières Armes de Figaro, Monsieur Garat, and Les Prés Saint Gervais, produced almost in succession, had a splendid run. Garat and Gervais were done at Theatre des Varlétés and in English at Criterion Theatre
in London. Les Pattes de mouche (1860: afterwards anglicized as A Scrap of Paper) obtained a similar success at the Gymnase.
Fédora
(1882) was written expressly for Sarah Bernhardt
, as were many of his later plays. This was later adapted by Umberto Giordano
, and he made an opera entitled Fedora. The play dealt with Nihilism
, which was coined from Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev
. He struck a new vein by introducing a strong historic element in some of his dramatic romances. Thus he borrowed Théodora (1884) from Byzantine
annals (which was adapted into a opera by Xavier Leroux
), La Haine (1874) from Italian chronicles, La Duchesse d'Athénes from the forgotten records of medieval Greece. Patrie! (1869) is founded on the rising of the Dutch Geuzen
at the end of the 16th century, and was made into a popular opera by Emile Paladihle in 1886. The scene of La Sorcière (1904) was laid in Spain
in the 16th century. The French Revolution
furnished him with three plays, Les Merveilleuses, Thermidor
(1891) and Robespierre (1902). His play Gismonda (1894) was adapted into a opera by Henry Février
. The last named was written expressly for Sir Henry Irving, and produced at the Lyceum theatre, as was Dante (1903). The imperial epoch was revived in La Tosca
(1887).Madame Sans Gêne (1893) was written specifically for Gabrielle Réjane
as the unreserved,good-hearted wife of Marshal Lefevre. It was translated into English and starred Henry Irving
and Ellen Terry
at the Lyceum Theatre, London Later plays were La Pisie (1905) and Le Drame des poisons (1907). In many of these plays, however, it was too obvious that a thin varnish of historic learning, acquired for the purpose, had been artificially laid on to cover modern thoughts and feelings. But a few —Patrie and La Haine (1874), for instance— exhibit a true insight into the strong passions of past ages. L'Affaire des Poisons (1907) was running Porte St. Martin Theatre and was very successful at the time of his death. The play involved the poisoning camarilla
under Louis XIV of France
. Toward the end of his life, Sardou made several recordings of himself reading passages from his works, including a scene from Patrie!.
was married a second time, to Mlle Soulié on 17 June 1872 to the daughter of the erudite Eudore Soulié, who for many years superintended the Musée de Versailles
. He was elected to the Académie française
in the room of the poet Joseph Autran
(1813–1877), and took his seat on 22 May 1878. He lived at Château de Marly
for some time.
He was the winner of the Légion d'honneur
in 1863 and was elected a member to the French Academy in 1877.
Sardou died on 8 November 1908 in Paris. He had been ill for a long time. Official cause of death was from pulmonary congestion
. It was reported in Stephen Sadler Stanton's intro to Camille and Other Plays that Sardou would read the first act of one of Scribe's plays, rewrite the rest, and then compare the two. One of his first goals when writing was to devise a central conflict followed by a powerful climax. From there, he would work backwards to establish the action leading up to it. He believed conflict was the key to drama.
He was ranked with the two undisputed leaders of dramatic art at that time, Augier
and Dumas
. He lacked the powerful humour, the eloquence and moral vigour of the former, the passionate conviction and pungent wit of the latter, but he was a master of clever and easy flowing dialogue. He adhered to Scribe's constructive methods, which combined the three old kinds of comedy —the comedy of character, of manners and of intrigue— with the drame bourgeois, and blended the heterogeneous elements into a compact body and living unity. He was no less dexterous in handling his materials than his master had been before him, and at the same time opened a wider field to social satire. He ridiculed the vulgar and selfish middle-class person in Nos Intimes (1861: anglicized as Peril), the gay old bachelors in Les Vieux Garçons (1865), the modern Tartufes in Seraphine (1868), the rural element in Nos Bons Villageois (1866), old-fashioned customs and antiquated political beliefs in Les Ganaches (1862), the revolutionary spirit and those who thrive on it in Raba gas (1872) and Le Roi Carotte (1872), the then threatened divorce laws in Divorçons (1880).
said of La Tosca: "Such an empty-headed ghost of a shocker...Oh, if it had but been an opera!". He also came up with the dismissive term "Sardoodledom" in a review of Sardou plays (The Saturday Review, 1 June 1895). Shaw believed that Sardou's contrived dramatic machinery was creaky and that his plays were empty of ideas. Sardou's advice to young playwrights on how to be successful was to "Torture the women!" as part of any play construction.
After producer Sir Squire Bancroft saw the dress rehearsal for Fedora, he said in his memoirs "In five minutes the audience was under a spell which did not once abate throughout the whole four acts. Never was treatment of a strange and dangerous subject more masterly, never was acting more superb than Sarah showed that day." William Winter
said of Fedora that "the distinguishing characteristic of this drama is carnality."
In New Orleans, during the period when much of its upper class still spoke French, Antoine Alciatore, founder of the famous old restaurant Antoine's
, invented a dish called Eggs Sardou
in honor of the playwright's visit to the city.
Theatre of France
The theatre of France has a long and eventful history dating back to the Middle Ages.-Middle Ages:Discussions about the origins of non-religious theatre -- both drama and farce—in the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and...
dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play
Well-made play
The well-made play is a genre of drama from the 19th century that Eugène Scribe first codified and that Victorien Sardou developed. By the mid-19th century, it had entered into common use as a derogatory term...
. He also wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th-century operas such as La Tosca
La Tosca
La Tosca is a five-act drama by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role...
(1887) on which Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's opera Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
(1900) is based, and Fedora by Umberto Giordano
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
, a work that popularized the fedora hat
Fedora (hat)
A fedora is a men's felt hat. In reality, "fedora" describes most any men's hat that does not already have another name; quite a few fedoras have famous names of their own including the famous Trilby....
as well.
Childhood
Victorien 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...
on 7 September 1831. The Sardous were settled at Le Cannet
Le Cannet
Le Cannet is a commune of the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.-Location:Le Cannet is located on the north of Cannes, on the French Riviera...
, a village near Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, where they owned an estate, planted with olive tree
Olive Tree
The Olive Tree was a denomination used for several successive centre-left Italian political coalitions from 1995 to 2007.The historical leader and ideologue of these coalitions was Romano Prodi, Professor of Economics and former leftist Christian Democrat, who invented the name and the symbol of...
s. A night's frost killed all the trees and the family was ruined. Victorien's father, Antoine Léandre Sardou, came to Paris in search of employment. He was in succession a book-keeper at a commercial establishment, a professor of book-keeping, the head of a provincial school, then a private tutor and a schoolmaster in Paris, besides editing grammars, dictionaries and treatises on various subjects. With all these occupations, he hardly succeeded in making a livelihood, and when he retired to his native country, Victorien was left on his own resources. He had begun studying medicine, but had to desist for want of funds. He taught French to foreign pupils: he also gave lessons in Latin, history and mathematics to students, and wrote articles for cheap encyclopaedias.
Career
At the same time he was trying to make headway in the literary world. His talents had been encouraged by an old bas-bleuBlue Stockings Society (England)
The Blue Stockings Society was an informal women's social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century. The society emphasized education and mutual co-operation rather than the individualism which marked the French version....
, Mme de Bawl, who had published novels and enjoyed some reputation in the days of the Restoration, but she could do little for her protege. Victorien Sardou made efforts to attract the attention of Mlle Rachel
Rachel (actress)
Elisabeth "Eliza, or Élisa" Rachel Félix , better known only as Mademoiselle Rachel , was a French actress....
, and to win her support by submitting to her a drama, La Reine Ulfra, founded on an old Swedish chronicle. A play of his, La Taverne des étudiants, was produced at the Odéon
Odéon
The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe is one of France's six national theatres.It is located at 2 rue Corneille in the 6th arrondissement of Paris on the left bank of the Seine, next to the Luxembourg Garden...
on 1 April 1854, but met with a stormy reception, owing to a rumour that the débutant had been instructed and commissioned by the government to insult the students. La Taverne was withdrawn after five nights. Another drama by Sardou, Bernard Palissy, was accepted at the same theatre, but the arrangement was cancelled in consequence of a change in the management. A Canadian play, Fleur de Liane, would have been produced at the Ambigu
Ambigu
Ambigu is a French card game, composed of the characteristic elements of whist, bouillotte and piquet.A whist pack with the court cards deleted is used, and from two to six persons may play. Each player is given an equal number of counters, and a limit of betting is agreed upon. Two cards are...
but for the death of the manager. Le Bossu, which he wrote for Charles Albert Fechter, did not satisfy the actor; and when the play was successfully produced, the nominal authorship, by some unfortunate arrangement, had been transferred to other men. M Sardou submitted to Adolphe Montigny (Lemoine-Montigny), manager of the Gymnase, a play entitled Paris à l'envers, which contained the love scene, afterwards so famous, in Nos Intimes. Montigny thought fit to consult Eugène Scribe, who was revolted by the scene in question.
In 1857,Sardou felt the pangs of actual want, and his misfortunes culminated in an attack of typhoid fever. He was living in poverty and was dying in his garret
Garret
A garret is generally synonymous in modern usage with a habitable attic or small living space at the top of a house. It entered Middle English via Old French with a military connotation of a watchtower or something akin to a garrison, in other words a place for guards or soldiers to be quartered...
, surrounded with his rejected manuscripts. A lady who was living in the same house unexpectedly came to his assistance. Her name was Mlle de Brécourt. She had theatrical connections, and was a special favourite of Mlle Déjazet. She nursed him, cured him, and, when he was well again, introduced him to her friend. Déjazet had just established the theatre named after her. Every show after La Taverne was put on at this theatre. Then fortune began to smile on the author. Nine years after getting married to his first wife, she would pass away.
It is true that Candide, the first play he wrote for Mlle Déjazet, was stopped by the censor, but Les Premières Armes de Figaro, Monsieur Garat, and Les Prés Saint Gervais, produced almost in succession, had a splendid run. Garat and Gervais were done at Theatre des Varlétés and in English at Criterion Theatre
Criterion Theatre
The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has an official capacity of 588.-Building the theatre:...
in London. Les Pattes de mouche (1860: afterwards anglicized as A Scrap of Paper) obtained a similar success at the Gymnase.
Fédora
Fédora (play)
Fédora is a play by the French author Victorien Sardou. The first production in 1882 starred Sarah Bernhardt in the title role of Princess Fédora Romanoff. She wore a soft felt hat in that role which was soon a popular fashion for women; the hat became known as a Fedora....
(1882) was written expressly for Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
, as were many of his later plays. This was later adapted by Umberto Giordano
Umberto Giordano
Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
, and he made an opera entitled Fedora. The play dealt with Nihilism
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
, which was coined from Fathers and Sons
Fathers and Sons
Fathers and Sons is an 1862 novel by Ivan Turgenev, his best known work. The title of this work in Russian is Отцы и дети , which literally means "Fathers and Children"; the work is often translated to Fathers and Sons in English for reasons of euphony.- Historical context and notes :The fathers...
by Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
. He struck a new vein by introducing a strong historic element in some of his dramatic romances. Thus he borrowed Théodora (1884) from Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
annals (which was adapted into a opera by Xavier Leroux
Xavier Leroux
Xavier Henry Napoleón Leroux was a French composer.Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata Endymion...
), La Haine (1874) from Italian chronicles, La Duchesse d'Athénes from the forgotten records of medieval Greece. Patrie! (1869) is founded on the rising of the Dutch Geuzen
Geuzen
Geuzen was a name assumed by the confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles and other malcontents, who from 1566 opposed Spanish rule in the Netherlands. The most successful group of them operated at sea, and so were called Watergeuzen...
at the end of the 16th century, and was made into a popular opera by Emile Paladihle in 1886. The scene of La Sorcière (1904) was laid in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in the 16th century. The French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
furnished him with three plays, Les Merveilleuses, Thermidor
Thermidor (play)
Thermidor is a four-act 1891 dramatic play by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. The play is set during the French Revolution, almost exactly 100 years prior, and is one of seven Sardou plays set in that period...
(1891) and Robespierre (1902). His play Gismonda (1894) was adapted into a opera by Henry Février
Henry Février
Henry Février was a French composer.-Biography:Henry Février studied at the Paris Conservatoire where his teachers included Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. He also took private lessons with André Messager...
. The last named was written expressly for Sir Henry Irving, and produced at the Lyceum theatre, as was Dante (1903). The imperial epoch was revived in La Tosca
La Tosca
La Tosca is a five-act drama by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role...
(1887).Madame Sans Gêne (1893) was written specifically for Gabrielle Réjane
Gabrielle Réjane
Gabrielle Réjane was the stage name of Gabrielle-Charlotte Reju, , a French actress.Born in Paris, the daughter of an actor, she became a pupil of Régnier at the Conservatoire, and took the second prize for comedy in 1874. Her debut was made the next year, during which she played attractively a...
as the unreserved,good-hearted wife of Marshal Lefevre. It was translated into English and starred Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
and Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
at the Lyceum Theatre, London Later plays were La Pisie (1905) and Le Drame des poisons (1907). In many of these plays, however, it was too obvious that a thin varnish of historic learning, acquired for the purpose, had been artificially laid on to cover modern thoughts and feelings. But a few —Patrie and La Haine (1874), for instance— exhibit a true insight into the strong passions of past ages. L'Affaire des Poisons (1907) was running Porte St. Martin Theatre and was very successful at the time of his death. The play involved the poisoning camarilla
Camarilla
Camarilla may refer to:*Camarilla, an unofficial group of courtiers or favorites surrounding and influencing a king or ruler, specifically the two such groups prominent in German history....
under Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. Toward the end of his life, Sardou made several recordings of himself reading passages from his works, including a scene from Patrie!.
Personal life and death
Sardou married his benefactress, Mlle de Brécourt, but eight years later he became a widower, and soon after the Revolution of 1870Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
was married a second time, to Mlle Soulié on 17 June 1872 to the daughter of the erudite Eudore Soulié, who for many years superintended the Musée de Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
. He was elected to the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
in the room of the poet Joseph Autran
Joseph Autran
-Biography:Autran was born in Marseille.In 1832 he addressed an ode to Alphonse de Lamartine, who was then at Marseille on his way to the East. Lamartine persuaded the young man's father to allow him to follow his poetic instinct, and Autran became Lamartine's faithful disciple from then on.His...
(1813–1877), and took his seat on 22 May 1878. He lived at Château de Marly
Château de Marly
The Château de Marly was a relatively small French royal residence located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris....
for some time.
He was the winner of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
in 1863 and was elected a member to the French Academy in 1877.
Sardou died on 8 November 1908 in Paris. He had been ill for a long time. Official cause of death was from pulmonary congestion
Writing Style
He modeled his work after Eugene ScribeEugène Scribe
Augustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...
. It was reported in Stephen Sadler Stanton's intro to Camille and Other Plays that Sardou would read the first act of one of Scribe's plays, rewrite the rest, and then compare the two. One of his first goals when writing was to devise a central conflict followed by a powerful climax. From there, he would work backwards to establish the action leading up to it. He believed conflict was the key to drama.
He was ranked with the two undisputed leaders of dramatic art at that time, Augier
Émile Augier
Guillaume Victor Émile Augier was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857.-Biography:...
and Dumas
Alexandre Dumas, fils
Alexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
. He lacked the powerful humour, the eloquence and moral vigour of the former, the passionate conviction and pungent wit of the latter, but he was a master of clever and easy flowing dialogue. He adhered to Scribe's constructive methods, which combined the three old kinds of comedy —the comedy of character, of manners and of intrigue— with the drame bourgeois, and blended the heterogeneous elements into a compact body and living unity. He was no less dexterous in handling his materials than his master had been before him, and at the same time opened a wider field to social satire. He ridiculed the vulgar and selfish middle-class person in Nos Intimes (1861: anglicized as Peril), the gay old bachelors in Les Vieux Garçons (1865), the modern Tartufes in Seraphine (1868), the rural element in Nos Bons Villageois (1866), old-fashioned customs and antiquated political beliefs in Les Ganaches (1862), the revolutionary spirit and those who thrive on it in Raba gas (1872) and Le Roi Carotte (1872), the then threatened divorce laws in Divorçons (1880).
Legacy
Irish playwright and critic George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
said of La Tosca: "Such an empty-headed ghost of a shocker...Oh, if it had but been an opera!". He also came up with the dismissive term "Sardoodledom" in a review of Sardou plays (The Saturday Review, 1 June 1895). Shaw believed that Sardou's contrived dramatic machinery was creaky and that his plays were empty of ideas. Sardou's advice to young playwrights on how to be successful was to "Torture the women!" as part of any play construction.
After producer Sir Squire Bancroft saw the dress rehearsal for Fedora, he said in his memoirs "In five minutes the audience was under a spell which did not once abate throughout the whole four acts. Never was treatment of a strange and dangerous subject more masterly, never was acting more superb than Sarah showed that day." William Winter
William Winter (author)
William Winter was an American dramatic critic and author.-Biography:Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Winter graduated from Harvard Law School in 1857...
said of Fedora that "the distinguishing characteristic of this drama is carnality."
In New Orleans, during the period when much of its upper class still spoke French, Antoine Alciatore, founder of the famous old restaurant Antoine's
Antoine's
Antoine's is a Louisiana Creole cuisine restaurant located at 713 rue St. Louis in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It has the distinction of being the oldest family run restaurant in the United States, having been established in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore...
, invented a dish called Eggs Sardou
Eggs Sardou
Eggs Sardou is a Louisiana Creole cuisine dish made with poached eggs, artichoke bottoms, creamed spinach and Hollandaise sauce. It is on the menu of many Creole restaurants in New Orleans, including Antoine's, where Eggs Sardou was invented, and Brennan's...
in honor of the playwright's visit to the city.
Stage Works
- La Taverne des étudiants (1854)
- Les Premieres Armes de Figaro (1859), with Emile Vanderbuch
- Les Gens nerveux (1859), with Theodore BarriereTheodore BarrièreThéodore Barrière , French dramatist, was born in Paris.He belonged to a family of map engravers which had long been connected with the war department, and spent nine years in that service himself...
- Les Pattes de mouche (A Scrap of Paper) (1860)
- Monsieur Garat (1860)
- Les Femmes fortes (1860)
- L'écureuil (1861)
- L'Homme aux pigeons (1861), with Jules Pelissie
- Onze Jours de siege (1861)
- Piccolino (1861), with Charles-Louis-Etienne NuitterCharles-Louis-Etienne NuitterCharles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter was a French librettist, translator, writer and librarian born in Paris, France on 24 April 1828. He died there on 23 February 1899 after suffering a stroke a few days before.-Librettist and translator:...
and music by Ernest GuiraudErnest GuiraudErnest Guiraud was a French composer and music teacher born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for Bizet's opera Carmen and for Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann .- Biography :Guiraud began his schooling in Louisiana under the... - Nos Intimes! (1861)
- Chez Bonvalet (1861), with Henri Lefebvre and Jules Pelissie
- La Papillonne (1862)
- La Perle Noire (The Black Pearl) (1862)
- Les Pres Saint-Gervais (1862), 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:...
and music by Charles Lecocq - Les Ganaches (1862)
- Bataille d'amour (1863), with Karl Daclin and music by Auguste Emmanuel Vaucorbeil
- Les Diables noirs (1863)
- Le Degel (1864)
- Don Quichotte (1864), rearranged by Sardou and Charles-Louis-Etienne NuitterCharles-Louis-Etienne NuitterCharles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter was a French librettist, translator, writer and librarian born in Paris, France on 24 April 1828. He died there on 23 February 1899 after suffering a stroke a few days before.-Librettist and translator:...
and music by Maurice Renaud - Les Pommes du voisin (1864)
- Le Capitaine Henriot (1864), by Sardou and Gustave Vaez, music by François-Auguste GevaertFrançois-Auguste GevaertFrançois-Auguste Gevaert was a Belgian composer.His father was a baker, and he was intended for the same profession, but better counsels prevailed and he was permitted to study music. He was sent in 1841 to the Ghent Conservatory, where he studied under Edouard de Sommere and Martin-Joseph Mengal...
- Les Vieux Garçons (1865)
- Les Ondines au Champagne (1865), with Henri Lefebvre and Jules Pelissie
- La Famille Benoîton (1865)
- Les Cinq Francs d'un bourgeois de Paris (1866), with Antoine Gadon Dunan-Mousseux and Jules Pélissié
- Nos Bons Villageois (1866)
- Maison neuve (1866)
- Séraphine (1868)
- Patrie! (Fatherland) (1869), later revised in 1886 with music by Emile PaladilheEmile PaladilheÉmile Paladilhe was a French composer of the late romantic period.-Biography:Émile Paladilhe was born in Montpellier. He was a musical child prodigy, and moved from his home in the south of France to Paris to begin his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris at age 10...
- Fernande (1870)
- Le roi CarotteLe roi CarotteLe roi Carotte is a 4-act opéra-bouffe-féerie with music by Jacques Offenbach and libretto by Victorien Sardou, after E. T. A. Hoffmann. It premiered at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 15 January 1872...
(1872), music by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques 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.... - Les Vieilles Filles (1872), with Charles de Courcy
- Andréa (1873)
- L’Oncle Sam (Uncle Sam) (1873)
- Les Merveilleuses (1873), music by Félix Hugo
- Le Magot (1874)
- La Haine (Hatred) (1874), music by Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques 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....
- Ferréol (1875)
- L'Hôtel Godelot (1876), with Henri Crisafulli
- Dora (1877)
- Les Exilés (1877), with Gregorij Lubomirski and Eugène Nus
- Les Bourgeois de Pont-Arcy (1878)
- Les Noces de Fernande (1878), with Émile de NajacEmile de NajacComte Émile de Najac was a French librettist. He was a prolific writer during 2nd Empire and early part of the 3rd Republic, supplying plays and opéra comique librettos, many in one act...
and music by Louis-Pierre Deffès - Daniel Rochat (1880)
- Divorçons! (Let’s Get a Divorce) (1880), with Émile de NajacEmile de NajacComte Émile de Najac was a French librettist. He was a prolific writer during 2nd Empire and early part of the 3rd Republic, supplying plays and opéra comique librettos, many in one act...
- Odette (1881)
- Fédora (1882)
- Théodora (1884), later revised in 1907 with P. Ferrior and music by Xavier LerouxXavier LerouxXavier Henry Napoleón Leroux was a French composer.Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata Endymion...
- Georgette (1885)
- Le Crocodile (1886), with music by Jules MassenetJules MassenetJules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
- La ToscaLa ToscaLa Tosca is a five-act drama by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role...
(1887) - Marquise (1889)
- Belle-Maman (1889), with Raymond Deslandes
- Cléopâtre (1890), with Émile MoreauÉmile MoreauÉmile Moreau was a French playwright and screenwriter. In co-operation with Victorien Sardou, he wrote the plays Madame Sans-Gêne and Cleopatre . He also wrote the play Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, and the script for its film adaptation, and was one of the co-founders of the Indian...
and music by Xavier LerouxXavier LerouxXavier Henry Napoleón Leroux was a French composer.Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata Endymion... - ThermidorThermidor (play)Thermidor is a four-act 1891 dramatic play by the 19th-century French playwright Victorien Sardou. The play is set during the French Revolution, almost exactly 100 years prior, and is one of seven Sardou plays set in that period...
(1891) - Madame Sans-GêneMadame Sans-GêneMadame Sans-Gêne may refer to:*Marie-Thérèse Figueur , French female soldier*Cathérine Hübscher, wife of Marshal of France François Joseph Lefebvre, whose life has been dramatised in:...
(1893), with Émile MoreauÉmile MoreauÉmile Moreau was a French playwright and screenwriter. In co-operation with Victorien Sardou, he wrote the plays Madame Sans-Gêne and Cleopatre . He also wrote the play Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, and the script for its film adaptation, and was one of the co-founders of the Indian... - GismondaGismondaGismonda is Greek melodrama in four acts by Victorien Sardou that premiered in 1894 at Renaissance Theatre. Later it would be adapted into the opera Gismonda by Henry Février.-Plot:Act I starts in 1450 in Athens at the foot of the Acropolis....
(1894) - Marcelle (1895)
- Spiritisme (1897)
- Paméla (1898)
- Robespierre (1899)
- La Fille de Tabarin (1901), with Paul and music by Gabriel PiernéGabriel PiernéHenri Constant Gabriel Pierné was a French composer, conductor, and organist.-Biography:Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz in 1863. His family moved to Paris to escape the Franco-Prussian War. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, gaining first prizes for solfège, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue...
- Les Barbares (1901), with Pierre-Barthélemy GheusiPierre-Barthélemy GheusiPierre-Barthélemy Gheusi, also known by the pseudonym Norbert Lorédan, was a French theatre director, librettist, journalist and writer...
, music by Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony... - Dante (1903), with Émile MoreauÉmile MoreauÉmile Moreau was a French playwright and screenwriter. In co-operation with Victorien Sardou, he wrote the plays Madame Sans-Gêne and Cleopatre . He also wrote the play Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth, and the script for its film adaptation, and was one of the co-founders of the Indian...
- La Sorciere (The Sorceress) (1903)
- Fiorella (1905), with Pierre-Barthélemy GheusiPierre-Barthélemy GheusiPierre-Barthélemy Gheusi, also known by the pseudonym Norbert Lorédan, was a French theatre director, librettist, journalist and writer...
and music by Amherst Webber - L'Espionne (1906)
- La Pisie (1906)
- L'Affaire des Poisons (1908), with Jules Pélissié
Adapted Works
- Nos Intimes! (1862), translated by Horace Wigan into Friends or Foes?
- La Papillonne (1864), translated by Augustin DalyAugustin DalyJohn Augustin Daly was an American theatrical manager and playwright active in both the US and UK.-Biography:Daly was born in Plymouth, North Carolina and educated at Norfolk, Va...
into Taming of a Butterfly - Le Degel (1864), translated by Vincent Amcotts into Adonis Vanquished
- Les Ganaches (1869) translated and adapted by Thomas William RobertsonThomas William RobertsonThomas William Robertson , usually known professionally as T. W. Robertson, was an Anglo-Irish dramatist and innovative stage director best known for a series of realistic or naturalistic plays produced in London in the 1860s that broke new ground and inspired playwrights such as W.S...
into Progress - Nos Intimes! (1872), translated by George March into Our Friends
- Les Pres Saint-Gervais (1875), translated and adapted by Robert ReeceRobert ReeceRobert Reece was a British comic playwright and librettist active in the Victorian era. He wrote many successful musical burlesques, comic operas, farces and adaptations from the French, including the English-language adaptation of the operetta Les cloches de Corneville, which became the...
- Divorçons! (1882), translated into Cyprienne
- Patrie! (1886) an opera by Emile Paladihle
- Fedora (1898) an opera by Umberto GiordanoUmberto GiordanoUmberto Menotti Maria Giordano was an Italian composer, mainly of operas.He was born in Foggia in Puglia, southern Italy, and studied under Paolo Serrao at the Conservatoire of Naples...
- Robespierre, translated by Laurence IrvingLaurence IrvingLaurence Sydney Brodribb Irving was an English dramatist and novelist.-Life and career:Laurence Irving was a son of the great Victorian actor manager, Sir Henry Irving and his wife Florence , and brother to actor manager Harry Brodribb Irving...
- ToscaToscaTosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
(1900) an opera by Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire... - Les Merveilleuses (1907), adapted by Basil HoodBasil HoodBasil Willett Charles Hood was a British librettist and lyricist, perhaps best known for writing the libretti of half a dozen Savoy Operas and for his English adaptations of operettas, including The Merry Widow. He embarked on a career in the British army, writing theatrical pieces in his spare...
as The MerveilleusesThe MerveilleusesThe Merveilleuses is a musical play in three acts, with a book adapted from the French original of Victorien Sardou by Basil Hood, lyrics by Adrian Ross, and music by Hugo Felix... - Théodora (1907) an opera by Xavier LerouxXavier LerouxXavier Henry Napoleón Leroux was a French composer.Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata Endymion...
- Gismonda (1919) an opera by Henry FévrierHenry FévrierHenry Février was a French composer.-Biography:Henry Février studied at the Paris Conservatoire where his teachers included Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré. He also took private lessons with André Messager...
Further reading
- Blanche RooseveltBlanche RooseveltBlanche Roosevelt , was an American opera singer and author. Her father was state Senator Tucker of Wisconsin.-Early life and opera career:...
(2009) Victorien Sardou BiblioLife ISBN 1110541309 - Stephen Sadler Stanton (1990) Camille and Other Plays: A Peculiar Position; The Glass of Water; La Dame aux Camelias; Olympe's Marriage; A Scrap of Paper Hill and WangHill and WangHill & Wang is an American book publishing company focused on American history, world history, and politics. It is a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux....
ISBN 0809007061