Augustin+Eugène+Scribe


 * Augustin Eugène Scribe ** (24 December 1791 – 20 February 1861), was a [|French] dramatist and [|librettist]. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "[|well-made play]" (//pièce bien faite//). This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years. Scribe was born in Paris. His father was a silk merchant, and he was well educated, being destined for the [|law]. However, he soon began to write for the stage. His first piece, //Le Prétendu sans le savoir//, was produced anonymously at the //Variétés// in 1810, and was a failure. Numerous other plays, written in collaboration with various authors, followed; but Scribe achieved no distinct success till 1815.

Scribe's main subject matter was the contemporary bourgeoisie. He mastered his craft writing //comédies vaudevilles//, short middle-class entertainments, often with songs. He wrote very popular pieces with elaborate plots full of clever twists. What they lack, it is generally thought, is depth of character, thought, or social criticism. They stand in sharp contrast, for example, to [|Romantic] plays of the same period, such as those of [|Victor Hugo].

He was prolific; he wrote various dramas—vaudevilles, comedies, tragedies, opera-libretti. To the //Gymnase// theatre alone he is said to have furnished a hundred and fifty pieces before 1830. He had a number of co-workers, one of whom supplied the story, another the dialogue, a third the jokes and so on. He is said in some cases to have sent sums of money for "copyright in ideas" to men who were unaware that he had taken suggestions from their work. Among his collaborators were [|Jean Henri Dupin] (1787–1887), [|Germain Delavigne], Delestre-Poirson, [|Mélésville], [|Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers], [|Xavier Saintine] and [|Ernest Legouvé].

He wrote libretti for [|operas] with almost every major opera composer of his time in France and Italy. He collaborated with [|Giacomo Meyerbeer] on a number of occasions, and also provided the words for works by [|Giuseppe Verdi], [|Vincenzo Bellini], [|Daniel Auber], [|Fromental Halévy], [|François Boïeldieu], [|Gaetano Donizetti] and [|Gioacchino Rossini]. At the time of his death, he was working on the libretto for Meyerbeer's //[|L'Africaine]//.

His debut in serious comedy was made at the //[|Théâtre Français]// in 1822 with //Valérie//, the first of many successful plays. His understanding of the mechanism of the stage and of the tastes of the audience was wonderful. For purely theatrical ability he is unrivalled, and his plays are still regarded as models of dramatic construction. Moreover he was for fifty years the best exponent of the ideas of the French middle classes, so that he deserves respectful attention, even though his style be vulgar and his characters commonplace. (Source: [])

Augustin Eugene Scribe (Source: [])

Best Known works by Scribe:
(Source: [])
 * 1826: //Bertrand et Suzette; ou Le Mariage de raison//
 * 1833: //Bertrand et Raton, on l'art de conspirer// (//The School for Politicians//
 * 1842: //Une Chaine//
 * 1842: //Le Verre d'eau// (//The Glass of Water//
 * 1849: //Adrienne Lecouvreur//, in conjunction with Legouvé
 * 1851: //Bataille de Dames// (//The Ladies' Battle//)
 * 1831: //Le philtre//, adapted by [|Felice Romani] into the libretto for Donizetti's//[|L'elisir d'amore]//.
 * 1831: A //ballet-pantomime// became the basis of the Italian libretto for Bellini's //[|La sonnambula]//,
 * 1902: //Adriana Lecouvreur// (written in collaboration with [|Ernest Legouvé]) was adapted into a libretto by [|Arturo Colautti] for [|Francesco Cilea]'s //[|Adriana Lecouvreur]//
 * 1825: [|Boieldieu]'s //[|La Dame blanche]// (based on five works by [|Walter Scott]).
 * 1828: Revisions to a libretto by Germain Delavigne for [|Daniel Auber]'s //[|La Muette de Portici]// (//The Mute Girl of Portici//)
 * 1830: Auber's //[|Fra Diavolo]//
 * 1831: [|Meyerbeer]'s //[|Robert le Diable]// (with [|Casimir Delavigne])
 * 1831: //[|La marquise de Brinvilliers]// set by nine composers (with [|Castil-Blaze])
 * 1831: Meyerbeer's //[|Les Huguenots]// (with [|Émile Deschamps])
 * 1835: [|Halévy]'s //[|La Juive]//
 * 1843: Donizetti's //[|Dom Sébastien]// (based on [|Paul-Henri Foucher]'s play)
 * 1855: Verdi's //[|Les vêpres siciliennes]// //(I vespri siciliani)// (with Charles Duveyrier based on their work on //[|Le duc d'Albe]// for Donizetti's unfinished opera which was not performed until 1882).

Links:

 * [|www.1911encyclopedia.org/**Augustin**_**Eugene**_**Scribe**]
 * [|www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/**augustin**_**eugene**_**scribe**.htm]
 * [|www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/.../**Eugene**-**Scribe**]