François Bernard-Valville

François Marcellin Bernard-Valville (6 February 1767 – 15 October 1828) was a French playwright and librettist.

Biography The son of a lawyer of Clermont, his studies led him to theater, where he played a few years under the name Bernard-Valville, before turning to playwriting, with some success. He arrived in Paris in 1795 and staged his plays in several Parisian theaters. But the career of arms attracted him: he accompanied General Decaen to Pondicherry and Mauritius Island when the latter became governor, and continued his career in France until the collapse of the Empire. The uncertain period following the Hundred Days prompted him to return to Mauritius, where he was appointed deputy headmaster of the Royal College in Port-Louis, where he also taught rhetoric. He returned to Paris later in life, where he eventually died.

Jacques Bernard, also a military (captain of hussards) and poet died in 1842, was his twin brother.

His plays were presented on the most important Parisian stages of his time including the Théâtre de la Gaîté and the Théâtre Feydeau.

Works 1794: Les Deux perruques, comédie nouvelle in one act and in verse c.1795: Le Miguelet, one-act opera 1799: Les Deux tableaux parlans ou le Dîner interrompu, one-act comedy in prose 1799: L'Horloge de bois, ou Un Trait d'humanité, one-act comedy, mingled with vaudevilles 1799: L'Épicière bel-esprit, one-act comedy, in prose, with Étienne Gosse 1799: La Lanterne magique, ou le Retour des époux, one-act comedy 1799: Marcelin, one-act opera, in prose 1799: Le Petit Gagne-Petit, ou l'Erreur d'une mère, one-act comey, in prose, mingled with vaudevilles 1799: Pygmalion à Saint-Maur, one-act farce-anecdotique and vaudevilles, with Étienne Crétu and Gosse 1800: Augustine et Benjamin, ou le Sargines de village, one-act opéra comique, with Eugène Hus 1800: Kiki, ou l'Île imaginaire, three-act comedie-folie, in prose, with Hus 1800: Le trompeur trompé, one-act opéra comique, in prose, with Pierre Gaveaux 1801: Vert-Vert, ou le Perroquet de Nevers, one-act opéra comique, in prose 1810: Henriette et Adhémar, ou, La bataille de Fontenoy, with Louis-Charles Caigniez, three-act melodrama, in prose 1820: Épître à mon frère, en réponse à la sienne 1822: Le Dépit amoureux, comédie de Molière, remise in two acts by Bernard-Valville