Michel Carré

Michel Carré

Michel Carré (20 October 1821, Besançon – 27 June 1872, Argenteuil) was a prolific French librettist.

He went to Paris in 1840 intending to become a painter but took up writing instead. He wrote verse and plays before turning to writing libretti. He wrote the text for Charles Gounod's Mireille (1864) on his own, and collaborated with Eugène Cormon on Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles. However, the majority of his libretti were completed in tandem with Jules Barbier, with whom he wrote the libretti for numerous operas, including Camille Saint-Saëns's Le timbre d'argent (libretto written in 1864, first performed in 1877), Gounod's Faust (1859), Roméo et Juliette (1867), and Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann (1881). As with the other libretti by Barbier and himself, these were adaptations of existing literary masterworks.

His son, Michel-Antoine (1865–1945), followed in his father's footsteps, also writing libretti, and later directing silent films. His nephew Albert Carré (1852–1938) also wrote libretti.

List of works with libretti by Michel Carré

Title	Composer	Collaborator	Year	Notes
Victoire!	Adolphe Adam		1855	Cantata to celebrate the Battle of Sevastopol, words by Carré alone
The Pearl Fishers	Georges Bizet	Eugène Cormon	1863	Adapted from Octave Sachot's L'ile de Ceylan et ses curiosités naturales
Don Quichotte	Ernest Boulanger	Jules Barbier	1869
Don Mucarade	Ernest Boulanger	Jules Barbier	1875	One-act comic opera
Lalla-Roukh	Félicien David	Hippolyte Lucas	1862	two-act comic opera
La guzla de l'Émir	Théodore Dubois	Jules Barbier	1873	1-act comic opera
Quentin Durward	François-Auguste Gevaert	Eugène Cormon	1858	Three-act opera
Le médecin malgré lui	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1858	Opéra comique in 3 acts
Faust	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1859	Adapted from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, loosely based on Goethe's Faust, Part I. Revised 1869
Philémon et Baucis	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1860	Based on Baucis and Philemon by Jean de la Fontaine (derived in turn from Ovid's Metamorphoses Book VIII)
La colombe	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1860	Based on the poem Le Faucon by Jean de la Fontaine.
La reine de Saba	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1862	From Gérard de Nerval's Le voyage en Orient.
Mireille	Charles Gounod		1864	Libretto by Carré alone, based on Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.
Roméo et Juliette	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1867	An adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Polyeucte	Charles Gounod	Jules Barbier	1868	Based on Polyeucte by Pierre Corneille
Valentine d'Aubigny	Fromental Halévy	Jules Barbier	1856	Comic opera, 3 acts
Les pêcheurs de Catane	Aimé Maillart	Eugène Cormon	1860	Three-act lyric opera
Lara	Aimé Maillart	Eugène Cormon	1864	3-act opera, based on Count Lara by Lord Byron
Galathée	Victor Massé	Jules Barbier	1852	Two-act opéra-comique
Les noces de Jeannette	Victor Massé	Jules Barbier	1853	One-act opéra-comique
Miss Fauvette	Victor Massé	Jules Barbier	1855
Les saisons	Victor Massé	Jules Barbier	1855	Three-act opéra-comique
Paul et Virginie	Victor Massé	Jules Barbier	1876	Three-act opéra-comique
Fior d'Alizia	Victor Massé	Hippolyte Lucas	1866
Dinorah	Giacomo Meyerbeer	Jules Barbier	1859	based on two tales by Émile Souvestre, La Chasse aux trésors and Le Kacouss de l'Armor
Deucalion et Pyrrhe	Alexandre Montfort	Jules Barbier	1855	One-act comic opera
The Marriage of Figaro	W. A. Mozart	Jules Barbier	1858	Translation into French for the Paris Théâtre Lyrique, ran for 200 performances
The Tales of Hoffmann	Jacques Offenbach	Jules Barbier (libretto & book)	1881	After a play by Barbier & Carré, Les contes fantastiques d'Hoffmann produced at the Odéon Theatre in Paris in 1851, based on stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann
La rose de Saint-Flour	Jacques Offenbach		1856	Libretto by Carré alone, 1-act operetta
Le mariage aux lanternes	Jacques Offenbach	Léon Battu	1857	Opérette, 1 act, revised version of Le trésor à Mathurin)
La Statue	Ernest Reyer	Jules Barbier	1869?	Opera, 3 acts – piano score arranged by Georges Bizet
Le timbre d'argent	Camille Saint-Saëns	Jules Barbier	1865	Saint-Saëns' first opera, an 'opera fantastique'. Not premiered until February 1877. Dialogue re-composed as Grand Opera, premiered in 1913.
Gil Blas	Théophile Semet	Jules Barbier	1860	notes
Hamlet	Ambroise Thomas	Jules Barbier	1868	notes
Mignon	Ambroise Thomas	Jules Barbier	1866	Based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. Revised in 1870
Psyché	Ambroise Thomas	Jules Barbier	1860	opéra-comique, 3.acts

Sources

• Christopher Smith: "Carré, Michel", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 4 December 2005) (subscription required)

External links

• Media related to Michel Carré at Wikimedia Commons