(Philipp) Eduard Devrient (11 August 18014 October 1877) was a German baritone,

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

, playwright, actor, theatre director, and theatre reformer and historian. Devrient came from a theatrical family. His uncle was Ludwig Devrient and his brother

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

was the first husband of

Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, born Wilhelmine Schröder (6 December 180426 January 1860), was a German operatic soprano. As a singer, she combined a rare quality of tone with dramatic intensity of expression, which was as remarkable on the conce ...

. He was born and studied in Berlin and performed in a number of German opera houses between 1819 and 1834, when he lost his singing voice and turned his attention to writing and acting. From 1844-6 he worked in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

as actor/director, and he directed the Hoftheater in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

from 1852 until his retirement in 1870. As a singer, he performed in works by

Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...

, Mozart,

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

and Weber, among others, and sang in the première of Marschner's '' Hans Heiling'' (in the title-role; Devrient also wrote its libretto). He also sang in the 1831 Berlin premiere of ''

Der Templer und die Jüdin ''Der Templer und die Jüdin '' (English: ''The Templar and the Jewess'') is an opera (designated as a '' Große romantische Oper'') in three acts by Heinrich Marschner. The German libretto by Wilhelm August Wohlbrück was based on a number of int ...

'' (as Bois-Guilbert). He also took the part of Christ in the 1829 revival by his friend Felix Mendelssohn of

J. S. Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

's '' St Matthew Passion'', having previously sung the role of Carrasco in Mendelssohn's only publicly performed opera, '' Die Hochzeit des Camacho'' (1827). He wrote a number of plays and two other opera librettos, ''Die Kirmes'' and ''Der Zigeuner'', both set by

Wilhelm Taubert Carl Gottfried Wilhelm Taubert (23 March 1811 – 7 January 1891) was a German pianist, composer, and conductor, and the father of philologist and writer Emil Taubert. Life Born in Berlin, Taubert studied under Ludwig Berger (piano) and Bernhard K ...

. In Karlsruhe, in the course of seventeen years, he not only raised it to a high position, but enriched its repertory by many noteworthy librettos. But his chief work is his history of the German stage, ''Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst'' (Leipzig, 1848-1874). Eduard Devrient died in Karlsruhe. His son Otto Devrient also worked in the theatre.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Devrient, Eduard 1801 births 1877 deaths Male actors from Berlin People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg Operatic baritones German male stage actors German opera librettists German theatre directors German male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German dramatists and playwrights 19th-century German male actors 19th-century German male opera singers 19th-century German male writers