Philippe Gille Explained

Philippe Emile François Gille (10 December 1831 – 19 March 1901) was a French dramatist and opera librettist, who was born and died in Paris.^[1] He wrote over twenty librettos between 1857 and 1893, the most famous of which are Massenet's Manon and Delibes' Lakmé.

Although Gille studied law and was a clerk for a time at the Préfecture de la Seine, he became secretary of the Théâtre Lyrique then from 1869 an art and music critic for Le Figaro.^[2]

Gille was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1899.

Librettos by Philippe Gille

• Jacques Offenbach
  • Vent du soir, ou L'horrible festin (1857)
  • Le carnaval des revues (1860)
  • Jeanne qui pleure et Jean qui rit (1864)
  • Les bergers (1865)
  • Pierrette et Jacquot (1876)
  • Le docteur Ox (1877)
• Léo Delibes
  • Monsieur de Bonne-étoile (1860)
  • Le serpent à plumes (1864)
  • Jean de Nivelle (1880)
  • Lakmé (1883)
  • Kassya (1893)
• Robert Planquette
  • Rip van Winkle (1882)
• Jules Massenet
  • Manon (1884)

Notes and References

1. Georges Moreau, Revue universelle : recueil documentaire universel et illustré,, Paris, Larousse, 1901, p.430.
2. Smith C. Philippe Gille. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.