Henri Meilhac

Henri Meilhac (1831–1897) was a French playwright and librettist best known for his collaboration with Ludovic Halévy and for co-writing the libretto of Georges Bizet’s Carmen.

Ludovic Halévy: Ludovic Halévy (1834–1908) was a French writer and Meilhac’s longtime collaborator on plays and operetta librettos. Their partnership produced many of Meilhac’s best-known stage works.
Carmen: Carmen is an 1875 opera by Georges Bizet about a free-spirited factory worker and the soldier Don José. Meilhac co-wrote its libretto with Halévy, adapting Prosper Mérimée’s novella.
Prosper Mérimée: Prosper Mérimée (1803–1870) was a French writer whose novella Carmen inspired Bizet’s opera. Meilhac and Halévy reshaped Mérimée’s story for the opera stage.
Parisian theater: Parisian theater is the network of stages, performers, writers, and audiences centered in Paris. Its venues and audiences provided the professional world in which Meilhac built his career.
Carmen (opera): Carmen is an opera by Georges Bizet, first performed in Paris in 1875. Its enduring popularity has kept Meilhac’s libretto in the international operatic repertory.
Georges Bizet: Georges Bizet (1838–1875) was a French composer whose opera Carmen became a lasting repertory work. He composed Carmen to a libretto by Meilhac and Halévy.
La Belle Hélène: La Belle Hélène is an 1864 operetta by Jacques Offenbach satirizing the myth of Helen of Troy. Meilhac and Halévy supplied the libretto for one of Offenbach’s signature successes.
Léon Carvalho: Léon Carvalho (1825–1897) was a French theatrical director and impresario associated with the Théâtre-Lyrique. He commissioned Carmen, bringing Meilhac and Halévy’s libretto into production.
Second French Empire: The Second French Empire was the regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870. Meilhac’s rise coincided with this era’s expansion of popular Parisian entertainment.
Carmen (character): Carmen is the central character of Bizet’s opera, a Romani woman who resists Don José’s attempts to control her. Meilhac helped create the stage portrayal that made her an enduring operatic figure.

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Hector-Jonathan CrémieuxRelated: His work belongs to the same Parisian comic-opera world as Crémieux’s.