Charles Duveyrier (12 April 1803 – 10 November 1866) 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

Saint-Simonianism Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon (; ; 17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825), better known as Henri de Saint-Simon (), was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on po ...

ideologist An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

, born on April 12, 1803, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where he died on November 10, 1866.

Biography

A son of

Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier (6 December 1753 – 25 May 1839) was an 18th–19th-century French lawyer, politician and playwright.''Grands notables du premier empire'', éditions du CNRS, (p. 110-112) Biography The second son of Nob ...

and half-brother of the dramatist Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier known as

Mélesville Baron Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier, pen-name Mélesville (13 December 1787 in Paris – 7 November 1865 in Marly-le-Roi) was a French dramatist. The playwright Mélesville fils was his son. Life The son of Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier, M ...

, with whom Charles Duveyrier partnered several times; but he is best known as an adept and propagator of the Saint-Simonian doctrines. Duveyrier was the father of the Saint-Simonian traveller and geographer Henri Duveyrier. In addition to the publications of that school of thought, Duveyrier published several texts including ''l’Avenir et les Bonaparte'' (1864). In collaboration with

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of man ...

, Duveyrier wrote the

libretto 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 theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

for ''

I vespri siciliani ''I vespri siciliani'' (; "The Sicilian Vespers") is a five-act Italian opera originally written in French for the Paris Opéra by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi and translated into Italian shortly after its premiere in June 1855. ...

'' by

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

from their work ''

Le duc d'Albe ''Le duc d'Albe'' (its original French title) or ''Il duca d'Alba'' (its later Italian title) is an opera in three acts originally composed by Gaetano Donizetti in 1839 to a French language libretto by Eugène Scribe and Charles Duveyrier. Its ...

'', which was written in 1838 and offered to Halévy and

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...

before Verdi agreed to set it to music in

1854 Events January–March * January 4 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the ''Samarang''. * January 6 – The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps born. * January 9 – The Te ...

. Duveyrier is buried in the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

(60th division). Fichier:Père-Lachaise - Division 60 - Duveyrier 01.jpg

References

Sources

Gustave Vapereau Louis Gustave Vapereau (4 April 1819 – 18 April 1906) was a French writer and lexicographer famous primarily for his dictionaries, the ''Dictionnaire universel des contemporains'' and the ''Dictionnaire universel des littérateurs''. Biography ...

, ''Dictionnaire universel des littératures'', Paris, Hachette, 1876, {{DEFAULTSORT:Duveyrier, Charles 19th-century French dramatists and playwrights French opera librettists Writers from Paris 1803 births 1866 deaths Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery