Clairville (Louis-François Nicolaïe)

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Clairville
Caricature of Clairville published in Le Trombinosocope of Touchatout, 1874
Born28 January 1811
Lyon
Died9 February 1879(1879-02-09) (aged 68)
Paris
Occupation(s)Comedian
Poet
Chansonnier
Clairville, par Étienne Carjat.

Louis-François-Marie Nicolaïe (28 January 1811[1] – 8 February 1879[2]), better known as Clairville, was a 19th-century French comedian, poet, chansonnier, goguettier and playwright.

Biography[edit]

Son of the Lyonese playwright and stage manager Alexandre-Henri Nicolaïe dit Clairville (died 1832),[3] he began in 1821 in Paris at the Luxembourg Theater as actor with Madame Saqui, then as stage manager and finally, from 1837, exclusively as playwright.[4] He later joined the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, playing small roles and developed his craft as a playwright, finding that to be his true vocation.[citation needed] He first conceived a revue titled 1836 dans la lune, the success of which would launch his career.[citation needed] His plays included comedies, serious plays, revues, féeries, satires and parodies.[citation needed]

He is credited with at least 230 miscellaneous pieces of which 50 have reached one hundred representations followed.[5] He was particularly known for his comédies en vaudeville.[citation needed] He was assisted, from the beginning of his career, by his friend Edward Miot. His group of his collaborators grew to include Dumanoir, Dennery, Nicot and Cordier.[citation needed] They drew inspiration from the news of the day.[citation needed] Clairville collaborated with other authors, including the Cogniard brothers, Lambert-Thiboust, Paul Siraudin, Victor Koning, Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru, Édouard Plouvier, Alfred Delacour for plays and operettas.[citation needed]

Clairville was an active member of the fourth Société du Caveau, of which he was president in 1871.[citation needed]

"Clarville doesn't not compose, he makes ... kind of literary thrift store, where old threadbare words and buried puns are dressed to the nine," wrote Henri Rochefort; but he added, "not an administrative measure, not a weird ad, not a new invention that Mr. Clarville has not set in a script or turned into couplets. This is the man of the review and parody par excellence."[citation needed]

In 1853, he published Chansons et Poésies, a collection of rhymes, from the ribald songs, "which are sung in the desert" according to Albert Blanquet, to the touching simplicity of the poems.[citation needed] He was awarded the cross of Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1857.[citation needed]

In 1870, he composed the song Les Deux Canailles,[6] in response to the song[7] La Canaille by Alexis Bouvier. In 1871, he wrote at least two anti-communard songs: L'Internationale[8] where he gave his vision of the "Internationale ouvrière" as a collection of bandits,[citation needed] and La Commune[9] in which he called for the massacre of Communards.[citation needed]

Clairville died of pneumonia on 8 February 1879.[10][11][12] After the funeral at Église Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile in Paris on 10 February, he was buried at Montmartre Cemetery.[13]

Family[edit]

Clairville had two sons. The composer Édouard-François Nicolaïe, known as Clairville fils (1854–1904) was from his marriage with Angélique Gabrielle Pagès. Charles-Albert Nicolaïe, known as "Clairvoyance" (1833–1892), an employee at the Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, was born of an affair with Augustine Philippon.[citation needed] Claiville was the uncle of the playwright and librettist Charles-Victor Nicolaïe, known as Charles Clairville (1855-1927).[citation needed]

Selected works[edit]

Clairville's plays written in collaboration with leading playwrights of his time or that continue to be presented, include the following:

  • 1843: Les Hures-Graves with Dumanoir and Alfred Delacour
  • 1845: Les Pommes de terre malades with Dumanoir
  • 1845: Le Petit Poucet with Dumanoir
  • 1846: Gentil-Bernard ou l'Art d'aimer with Dumanoir
  • 1846: Colombe et Perdreau with Jules Cordier
  • 1846: La Femme électrique with Jules Cordier
  • 1847: Éther, Magnétisme et Hatchis with Jules Cordier
  • 1847: Léonard le perruquier with Dumanoir
  • 1848: La propriété, c'est le vol with Jules Cordier
  • 1848: L'Avenir dans le passé ou les Succès au paradis with Jules Cordier
  • 1848: Le Club des maris ou le Club des femmes with Jules Cordier
  • 1848: Les Parades de nos pères with Dumanoir and Jules Cordier
  • 1848: Les Lampions de la veille et les Lanternes du lendemain with Dumanoir
  • 1849: Les Marraines de l'an III with Dumanoir
  • 1849: Exposition des produits de la République with Eugène Labiche and Dumanoir
  • 1850: Lully ou les Petits Violons de Mademoiselle with Dumanoir
  • 1850: Le Bourgeois de Paris ou les Leçons au pouvoir with Dumanoir and Jules Cordier
  • 1851: Le Duel au baiser with Éléonore Tenaille de Vaulabelle (alias Jules Cordier). One-act comedy mingled with couplets.
  • 1852: Les Coulisses de la vie with Dumanoir
  • 1852: La Femme aux œufs d'or with Dumanoir
  • 1853: Les Folies dramatiques with Dumanoir
  • 1858: Turlututu chapeau pointu with Édouard Martin and Albert Monnier, music by Léon Bovery
  • 1860: La Fille du Diable with Paul Siraudin and Lambert-Thiboust
  • 1860: Daphnis et Chloé with Jules Cordier, music by Jacques Offenbach
  • 1863: Peau d'âne, féerie in 4 acts and 20 tableaux, with Louis-Émile Vanderburch and Laurencin, music by Léon Fossey, Théâtre de la Gaîté (14 August)
  • 1864: La Revue pour rien ou Roland à Ronge-Veau, with Paul Siraudin and Ernest Blum, music by Hervé
  • 1869: Le Mot de la fin with Paul Siraudin
  • 1869: Paris-Revue with Paul Siraudin and William Busnach
  • 1872: La revue n'est pas au coin du quai with Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning
  • 1872: Héloïse et Abélard avec William Busnach, music by Henry Litolff
  • 1872: La fille de Madame Angot with Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning, music by Charles Lecocq
  • 1873: Les cent vierges music by Charles Lecocq
  • 1874: La Belle au bois dormant, music by Henry Litolff
  • 1877: Les cloches de Corneville with Charles Gabet, music by Robert Planquette

References[edit]

  1. ^ Municipal Archives of Lyon, scanned-civil status register of 1811 births, act n° 359 (vue 25/328), Les témoins à l'acte sont Louis-François Ribié, directeur du Théâtre des Célestins and Louis-Jacques Solomé, "dramatic artist residing at said theater"
  2. ^ Digital archives of the City of Paris, civil status of the 10th arrondissement, registry 1879 deaths, act n°578
  3. ^ Reconstructed archives of the city of Paris, file 7/51
  4. ^ Ducourneau, Jean A. (1971). Œuvres complètes : Honoré de Balzac (in French). Vol. 23. Paris: Les Bibliophiles de l'originale. p. 580..
  5. ^ Arnold Mortier, in his Soirées parisiennes 1874-1884, called him "The man with inexhaustible cards" but concluded that some of these plays may have been counterfeited.
  6. ^ Clairville, Les Deux Canailles, Le Caveau 1871.
  7. ^ Alexis Bouvier on Data.bnf.fr [fr].
  8. ^ Clairville, L'Internationale, Le Caveau 1872.
  9. ^ Clairville, La Commune, Le Caveau 1872.
  10. ^ « Nécrologie », Le Temps, 10 February 1879, pp.2-3.
  11. ^ « Mort de Clairville » Le Petit Parisien, 10 February 1879, pp.2-3.
  12. ^ Courrier des théâtres, Le Figaro, 8 February 1879, pp. 3-4
  13. ^ Le Figaro (11 February 1879). "Courrier des théâtres", p. 3 (in French)

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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