What is a five-act tragedy in verse by Voltaire written in only three weeks that was revived in 1874 by a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including "La Dame Aux Camelias" ?
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Zaïre (play) Zaïre (] ; "The Tragedy of Zara") is a five-act tragedy in verse by Voltaire. Written in only three weeks, it was given its first public performance on 13 August 1732 by the Comédie française in Paris. It was a great success with the Paris audiences and marked a turning away from tragedies caused by a fatal flaw in the protagonist's character to ones based on pathos. The tragic fate of its heroine is caused not through any fault of her own, but by the jealousy of her Muslim lover and the intolerance of her fellow Christians. "Zaïre" was notably revived in 1874 with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role, and it was the only one of Voltaire's plays to be performed by the "Comédie française" during the 20th century. The play was widely performed in Britain well into the 19th century in an English adaptation by Aaron Hill and was the inspiration for at least thirteen operas.
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Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (] ; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including "La Dame Aux Camelias" by Alexandre Dumas, "fils", "Ruy Blas" by Victor Hugo, "Fédora" and "La Tosca" by Victorien Sardou, and "L'Aiglon" by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", while Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures.
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Mademoiselle Josette, My Woman (play) Mademoiselle Josette, My Woman (French: Mademoiselle Josette, ma femme) is a French comic play written by Paul Gavault and Robert Charvay which premiered in 1906. Numerous film adaptations have been made of it.
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Adrienne Lecouvreur Adrienne Lecouvreur (5 April 1692 – 20 March 1730) was a French actress, considered by many as the greatest of her time. Born in Damery, she first appeared professionally on the stage in Lille. After her Paris debut at the Comédie-Française in 1717, she was immensely popular with the public. Together with Michel Baron, she was credited for having developed a more natural, less stylized, type of acting.
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Marie-Louise Damien Marie-Louise Damien (December 5, 1889 – January 31, 1978), better known by the stage name Damia, was a French singer and actress.
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Jean Roule Jean Roule is the main fictional character in Octave Mirbeau’s proletarian tragedy, "Les Mauvais Bergers " ("The Bad Shepherds") (1897). During the first performance, Lucien Guitry played the role of Jean Roule.
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Jeanne Julia Bartet Jeanne Julia Bartet (1854 – 28 October 1941), a French actress, was born in Paris and trained at the Conservatoire. In 1872 she began a successful career at the Vaudeville, and in 1879 was engaged at the "Comédie-Française", of which she became a sociétaire in 1880. For many years she played the chief parts both in tragedy and comedy. She was known for Louis XI (1909) and Rival de son Père (1909). She had a season in London in 1908, when her consummate art was displayed in a number of parts.
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Camille (1917 film) Camille is a 1917 American silent film based on the play adaptation of "La Dame aux Camélias" ("The Lady of the Camellias") by Alexandre Dumas, "fils", first published in French as a novel in 1848 and as a play in 1852. Adapted for the screen by Adrian Johnson, "Camille" was directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starred Theda Bara as Camille and Albert Roscoe as her lover, Armand.
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Nicole Courcel Nicole Marie Jeanne Andrieu (21 October 1931 – 25 June 2016), better known as Nicole Courcel, was a French actress who achieved popularity through the 1950s and 1960s, though she is mostly unknown outside of France. Born in Saint-Cloud, western suburbs of Paris, she appeared in 43 films between 1947 and 1979. After working as an extra in a few films, she won a major role in "Rendez-vous de juillet" (1949), with Brigitte Auber. In 1970, she turned to television appearing in different television films and miniseries, in which she continued to work until 2004. Courcel is best known for her role in Serge Bourguignon's "Sundays and Cybele" (1962). She had notable parts in: "La Marie du port" (1950, opposite Jean Gabin), Sacha Guitry's "Royal Affairs in Versailles" (1954), and "La Sorcière" (1956, opposite Marina Vlady).
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Hattie Williams Hattie Williams (March 17, 1870 - August 17, 1942) was an American stage actress, comedian and vocalist from Boston. She first gained fame in several farcical plays by Charles Hoyt. In 1886, she performed with John A. Arneaux's Shakespearean acting troupe as Lady Anne in Richard III. She was a popular player in vaudeville and with Charles Frohman's theatrical company at the turn of the twentieth century and appeared often at his famous Empire Theatre, New York. Williams retired from the theatre in 1914 at the height of her career.
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Charity (play) Charity is a drama in four acts by W. S. Gilbert that explores the issue of a woman who had lived with a man as his wife without ever having married. The play analyses and critiques the double standard in the Victorian era concerning the treatment of men and women who had sex outside of marriage, anticipating the "problem plays" of Shaw and Ibsen. It opened on 3 January 1874 at the Haymarket Theatre in London, where Gilbert had previously presented his 'fairy comedies' "The Palace of Truth", "Pygmalion and Galatea", and "The Wicked World". "Charity" ran for about 61 performances, closing on 14 March 1874, and received tours and revivals thereafter.
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Le Martyre de saint Sébastien Le Martyre de saint Sébastien is a five-act musical mystery play on the subject of Saint Sebastian, with a text written in 1911 by the Italian author Gabriele D'Annunzio and incidental music by the French composer Claude Debussy (L.124).
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The Two Orphans (play) The Two Orphans (French:Les Deux orphelines) is a historical play by the French writers Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon. It premiered on 20 January 1874 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris. A melodrama set during the French Revolution, it takes place in five acts.
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Victorien Sardou Victorien Sardou (5 September 1831 – 8 November 1908) was a French dramatist. He is best remembered today for his development, along with Eugène Scribe, of the well-made play. He also wrote several plays that were made into popular 19th-century operas such as "La Tosca" (1887) on which Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" (1900) is based, and "Fedora" by Umberto Giordano, a work that popularized the fedora hat as well.
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Nicomède Nicomède is a tragedy by French dramatist Pierre Corneille, first performed in 1651.
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Françoise de Rimini Françoise de Rimini (Francesca da Rimini) is an opera in four acts with a prologue and an epilogue. The last opera composed by Ambroise Thomas, it sets a French libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier which is based on an episode from Dante's "Divine Comedy". The opera was first performed by the Paris Opera on 14 April 1882 but fell into relative obscurity until its revival in 2011.
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Constance Crawley Constance Crawley (30 March 1870 – 17 March 1919) was an English actress best known for leading roles in Shakespeare tragedies. She gained notice on the American stage at the start of the 20th century, and later starred in and wrote several silent films.
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Phèdre Phèdre (originally "Phèdre et Hippolyte") is a French dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677 at the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris.
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Yvonne Printemps Yvonne Printemps (] ; 25 July 1894 – 19 January 1977) was a French singer and actress who achieved stardom on stage and screen in France and internationally.
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Marie Litton Marie Litton (1847 – 1 April 1884) was the stage name of Mary Jessie Lowe, an English actress and theatre manager. After beginning a stage career in 1868, Litton became an actor-manager in 1871, producing plays for four years at the Court Theatre, including several by W. S. Gilbert. She also appeared in, and sometimes managed, other West End theatres. In the late 1870s, Litton managed the theatre at the Royal Aquarium, where she had some of her biggest acting successes, including as Lady Teazle in "The School for Scandal" (1877), Lydia Languish in "The Rivals" (1878), Miss Hardcastle in "She Stoops to Conquer" and Rosalind in "As You Like It" (both in 1879).
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Camille 2000 Camille 2000 is a 1969 film based on the 1852 novel and play "La Dame aux Camélias" by Alexandre Dumas, fils. It was adapted by Michael DeForrest and directed by Radley Metzger. It stars Danièle Gaubert and Nino Castelnuovo with Eleonora Rossi Drago and Massimo Serato.
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Anna Judic Anne Marie-Louise Damiens, stage name Anna Judic (18 July 1849, Semur-en-Auxois – 15 April 1911, Golfe-Juan) was a French comic actress. Her ménage à trois proved the inspiration for that in the 1880 Émile Zola novel "Nana".