Émile de Najac
Comte Émile de Najac (born Lorient December 1828, died Paris April 1899) was a French librettist. He was a prolific writer during 2nd Empire and early part of the 3rd Republic, supplying plays and opéra comique librettos, many in one act. His son was also a writer for the stage.
With Paul Ferrier he wrote the libretto for Lecocq’s La vie mondaine (1885) and with Paul Burani the libretto for Chabrier’s Le roi malgré lui (1887).[1]
For Émile Jonas he provided the libretto to the opéras bouffe Estelle et Némourin (1882, with Henri Bocage) and Le Premier baiser (1883, with Raoul Toché). For Pierre-Louis Deffès, Victorien Sardou and de Najac wrote the words for Les Noces de Fernande (1878).
The play Divorçons (1880), in collaboration with Sardou, survives in the French stage repertory to this day, and formed the basis for Ernst Lubitsch’s 1941 film Illusions perdues (That Uncertain Feeling). Apart from Sardou, de Najac collaborated with Scribe, About and Millaud.
[edit] References
- ^ Smith C. Émile de Najac. In: New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.
