Michel Carré


Michel Carré 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 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, Gounod's Faust, Roméo et Juliette, and Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. As with the other libretti by Barbier and himself, these were adaptations of existing literary masterworks.
His son, Michel-Antoine, followed in his father's footsteps, also writing libretti, and later directing silent films. His nephew Albert Carré also wrote libretti.

List of works with libretti by Michel Carré

TitleComposerCollaboratorYearNotes
Yvonne et Loïc1854Produced at the Théâtre du Gymnase
Victoire!1855Cantata to celebrate the Battle of Sevastopol, words by Carré alone
The Pearl FishersEugène Cormon1863Adapted from Octave Sachot's L'ile de Ceylan et ses curiosités naturales
Don QuichotteJules Barbier1869
Don MucaradeJules Barbier1875One-act comic opera
Lalla-RoukhHippolyte Lucas1862two-act comic opera
La guzla de l'ÉmirJules Barbier18731-act comic opera
Quentin DurwardEugène Cormon1858Three-act opera
Le médecin malgré luiJules Barbier1858Opéra comique in 3 acts
FaustJules Barbier1859Adapted from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, loosely based on Goethe's Faust, Part I. Revised 1869
Philémon et BaucisJules Barbier1860Based on Baucis and Philemon by Jean de La Fontaine
La colombeJules Barbier1860Based on the poem Le Faucon by Jean de La Fontaine.
La reine de SabaJules Barbier1862From Gérard de Nerval's Le voyage en Orient.
Mireille1864Libretto by Carré alone, based on Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.
Roméo et JulietteJules Barbier1867An adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
PolyeucteJules Barbier1868Based on Polyeucte by Pierre Corneille
Valentine d'AubignyJules Barbier1856Comic opera, 3 acts
Les pêcheurs de CataneEugène Cormon1860Three-act lyric opera
LaraEugène Cormon18643-act opera, based on Count Lara by Lord Byron
GalathéeJules Barbier1852Two-act opéra-comique
Les noces de JeannetteJules Barbier1853One-act opéra-comique
Miss FauvetteJules Barbier1855
Les saisonsJules Barbier1855Three-act opéra-comique
Paul et VirginieJules Barbier1876Three-act opéra-comique
Fior d'AliziaHippolyte Lucas1866
DinorahJules Barbier1859based on two tales by Émile Souvestre, La Chasse aux trésors and Le Kacouss de l'Armor
Deucalion et PyrrheJules Barbier1855One-act comic opera
The Marriage of FigaroW. A. MozartJules Barbier1858Translation into French for the Paris Théâtre Lyrique, ran for 200 performances
The Tales of HoffmannJules Barbier
La statueJules Barbier1869?Opera, 3 acts – piano score arranged by Georges Bizet
Le timbre d'argentJules Barbier1865Saint-Saëns' first opera, an 'opera fantastique'. Not premiered until February 1877. Dialogue re-composed as Grand Opera, premiered in 1913.
Gil BlasJules Barbier1860notes
HamletJules Barbier1868notes
MignonJules Barbier1866Based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. Revised in 1870
PsychéJules Barbier1860opéra-comique, 3.acts