François Marcellin Bernard-Valville (6 February 1767 – 15 October 1828) was a French

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

and

librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) 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 ...

Biography

The son of a lawyer of Clermont, his studies led him to theater, where he played a few years under the name Bernard-Valville, before turning to playwriting, with some success. He arrived in Paris in 1795 and staged his plays in several Parisian theaters. But the career of arms attracted him: he accompanied General Decaen to

Pondicherry Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...

and

Mauritius Island Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Agalé ...

when the latter became governor, and continued his career in France until the collapse of the Empire. The uncertain period following the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...

prompted him to return to Mauritius, where he was appointed deputy headmaster of the Royal College in Port-Louis, where he also taught rhetoric. He returned to Paris later in life, where he eventually died. ''The collected works of Sir Humphry Davy'', 1856, (p. 814-815) Jacques Bernard, also a military (captain of hussards) and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

died in 1842, was his twin brother. His plays were presented on the most important Parisian stages of his time including the Théâtre de la Gaîté and the

Théâtre Feydeau The Théâtre Feydeau (), a former Parisian theatre company, was founded in 1789 with the patronage of Monsieur, Comte de Provence (later to become Louis XVIII), and was therefore initially named the Théâtre de Monsieur. It began performing in ...

Works

*1794: ''Les Deux perruques'', comédie nouvelle in one act and in verse *c.1795: ''Le Miguelet'', one-act opera *1799: ''Les Deux tableaux parlans ou le Dîner interrompu'', one-act comedy in prose *1799: ''L'Horloge de bois, ou Un Trait d'humanité'', one-act comedy, mingled with vaudevilles *1799: ''L'Épicière bel-esprit'', one-act comedy, in prose, with Étienne Gosse *1799: ''La Lanterne magique, ou le Retour des époux'', one-act comedy *1799: ''Marcelin'', one-act opera, in prose *1799: ''Le Petit Gagne-Petit, ou l'Erreur d'une mère'', one-act comey, in prose, mingled with vaudevilles *1799: ''Pygmalion à Saint-Maur'', one-act farce-anecdotique and vaudevilles, with Étienne Crétu and Gosse *1800: ''Augustine et Benjamin, ou le Sargines de village'', one-act

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...

, with

Eugène Hus Pierre-Louis Stapleton (17 July 1758 in Brussels – 24 February 1823 in Brussels) was a ballet dancer and choreographer, born in the Austrian Netherlands who worked in France and the Netherlands. He was also known from around 1759 by the pseudony ...

*1800: ''Kiki, ou l'Île imaginaire'', three-act comedie-folie, in prose, with Hus *1800: '' Le trompeur trompé'', one-act opéra comique, in prose, with

Pierre Gaveaux Pierre Gaveaux (6 October 1760 – 5 February 1825) was a French operatic tenor and composer, notable for creating the role of Jason in Cherubini's ''Médée'' and for composing ''Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal'', the first operatic version of the ...

*1801: ''Vert-Vert, ou le Perroquet de Nevers'', one-act opéra comique, in prose *1810: ''Henriette et Adhémar, ou, La bataille de Fontenoy'', with

Louis-Charles Caigniez Louis-Charles Caigniez (13 April 1762 – 19 February 1842) was a 19th-century French playwright. Biography Endowed with a real talent for the stage, Caigniez competed on the boulevard theaters with René Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt an ...

, three-act

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

, in prose *1820: ''Épître à mon frère, en réponse à la sienne'' *1822: ''Le Dépit amoureux'', comédie de Molière, remise in two acts by Bernard-Valville

Bibliography

Joseph Marie Quérard Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

, ''La France littéraire ou dictionnaire bibliographique des savants...'', 1839, (p. 34) * Joann Elart, ''Catalogue des fonds musicaux conservés en Haute-Normandie'', 2004, (p. 217)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard-Valville, Francois 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights French opera librettists 1767 births Writers from Clermont-Ferrand 1828 deaths