Gabriel Astruc (14 March 1864 – 7 July 1938) was a French journalist, agent, promoter, theatre manager, theatrical impresario, and playwright whose career connects many of the best-known incidents and personalities of Belle Epoque Paris.

Biography

Born in Bordeaux, to the

Astruc family The Astruc family are a Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Jewish family from Avignon, France. The family has produced several Rabbis, physicians, journalists, and Talmudists who have been prominent throughout France. The founder of the modern family is Isra ...

, he was the son of Élie Aristide Astruc (1831–1905), the Grand Rabbi of Belgium from 1866–1879, and began his career working for publisher Paul Ollendorff, and as a columnist from 1885 through 1895. As a regular at Montmartre's prototypically bohemian Le Chat Noir cabaret, he befriended a young

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

and wrote articles and theater pieces under the pen name ''Surtac''. In 1897 he founded a music publishing company with his father-in-law Wilhelm Enoch, by 1900 he had introduced the luxury magazine ''Musica'', and by 1904 had become a concert promoter. In this period he was the booking agent for Mata Hari. Astruc booked Hari into the Paris Olympia in August 1905, and would manage her appearances for the next ten years, through the height of her considerable fame. He also served as booking agent for Feodor Chaliapin,

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

, and Wanda Landowska, but not Isadora Duncan, whom he considered too subtle to attract a sizable audience. From 1905 through 1912 Astruc brought a long list of musical giants to Paris under the banner "Great Season of Paris", including an Italian season with

Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...

and Australian soprano Nellie Melba in 1905, the creation of ''Salome'' under the baton of

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

in 1907, the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Revolution disrupted society. A ...

of Diaghilev in 1909, the Metropolitan Opera conducted by

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

in 1910, and Debussy's '' Le martyre de Saint Sébastien'' (text by Gabriele D'Annunzio) in 1911. In 1913 Astruc tried to parlay his success by commissioning Auguste Perret to build the innovative

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées () is an entertainment venue standing at 15 avenue Montaigne in Paris. It is situated near Avenue des Champs-Élysées, from which it takes its name. Its eponymous main hall may seat up to 1,905 people, while th ...

in the Avenue Montaige. This building is an architectural landmark of early

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

. After a brilliant and scandalous first season, climaxed by the famous riot at the May 29 premiere of The Rite of Spring, Astruc found himself financially ruined within six months. He was also the target of anti-Semitic attacks from Léon Daudet and others of the Action Française. After World War I, he worked in the field of radio and advertising, and in 1929 served as the manager of the Théâtre Pigalle for Philippe de Rothschild. Astruc and

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

were friends, having helped proofread the first edition of

Swann's Way ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

,Marcel Proust: A Life By William C. Carter, pg. 559 and Proust returned the favor by helping Astruc prepare his memoirs, ''Le pavillon des fantômes'', appearing in 1929. His papers reside at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dance Collection.

Sources

* this page translated from its equivalent on French Wikipedia accessed 9/22/2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astruc, Gabriel Impresarios 19th-century French journalists French male journalists 20th-century French journalists 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights French theatre managers and producers Lycée Condorcet alumni Writers from Bordeaux 19th-century French Sephardi Jews 1864 births 1938 deaths 19th-century French male writers 20th-century French male writers Businesspeople from Bordeaux Belle Époque