Henri Alfred Duru (22 November 1829Acte n° 304 (vue 79/90), registre des naissances de 1829 pour la commune de Clichy, Archives départementales des Hauts-de-Seine, E_NUM_CLI63 1829. The birth name is Henry Alfred Duru; in most subsequent official documents, it is spelled Henri Alfred Duru. – 28 December 1889Acte n° 2968, registre des décès de 1889 pour le 17e arrondissement, on the Archives numérisées de la Ville de Paris website.) was a 19th-century French playwright and operetta librettist who collaborated on more than 40 librettos for the leading French composers of operetta:Alfred Duru. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997. Hervé, Offenbach, Lecocq and Audran.
Biography His father was Jacques Denis Duru (Charonne, 1784 – Paris, 18 September 1863) and his mother Avoye Eugénie Leterrier (Villiers-le-Bel, 10 May 1790 – Paris, 26 January 1871), married in Paris on 29 July 1824. As a boy he was a classmate of his principal future literary collaborator, Henri Chivot.Journal des Débats Politiques et Littéraires, 31 December 1889 – Nécrologie.
Duru was working as an engraver when in 1857, in collaboration with his friend from the same quartier, Henri Chivot, they wrote “L'Histoire d'un gilet”, a three-act drame-vaudeville.Paris-capital : journal financier. 8 January 1890, p2. The piece played at the Folies-Dramatiques of the Boulevard du Temple, and on 14 November 1857 inaugurated the new theatre on the Rue de Bondy. From this time onwards, Duru worked continuously in the theatre, usually in collaboration with Chivot.Pierre Larousse. Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, 1er supplément, 1878.
He produced almost a hundred comédie en vaudevilles, comedies and operetta libretti, which played successfully on the stages of Paris. Chivot and Duru were known for the ingenuity of their subjects, fantasy of the episodes, pure comic situations and gaiety of the dialogues.Annuaire de la Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques. Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (France). Commission des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques, Paris, 1890, p161-2.
In December 1889 he caught the flu, during the 1889–90 flu pandemic and at first seemed to be recovering, but died after a relapse.Le Matin : 27 December 1889, No. 2501, page 4.
He died before he could see his final collaboration with Chivot Le Voyage de Suzette, which opened at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 20 January 1890.Noel E & Stoullig E. Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique, 16eme edition, 1890. G Charpentier et Cie, Paris, 1891, p263. At his interment at Père Lachaise Cemetery on 31 December 1889, a speech was given on his grave by Armand d'Artois on behalf of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques.
Works 1873: L’Homme du lapin blanc, three-act comédie en vaudeville 1870: La Boite à Bibi, folie-vaudeville
In collaboration with Chivot 1857: L'Histoire d'un gilet, drame-vaudeville in three acts, (premiere Folies-Dramatiques 14 November 1857) 1858: Mon nez, mes yeux, ma bouche, three acts, with Siraudin 1850: La Femme de Jephté, three-act vaudeville 1860: Les Splendeurs de Fil d’acier, three acts 1861: Le Songe d’une nuit d’avril, two acts 1863: Pifferaro, one act 1864: Les Mères terribles, one-act comedy, given at the Odéon, (first work by Duru and Chivot on a larger stage) 1865: La Tante Honorine, three-act comedy (second work by Duru and Chivot in a serious genre, for the same theatre) 1865: Les Orphéonistes en voyage, play in five acts and ten tableaux 1865: Le Rêve, opéra comique in one act by Edmond Savary, first performed 13 October 1865 Théâtre Lyrique 1865: Un homme de bronze, one-act vaudeville 1865: Les Médiums de Gonesse, one-act folie 1856: Les Chevaliers de ta Table ronde, three-act opéra bouffe, music by Hervé 1867: Un Pharmacien aux Thermopyles, one-act vaudeville 1868: Le Luxe de ma femme, one-act vaudeville 1868: L'île de Tulipatan, one-act opéra bouffe, music by Offenbach 1868: Fleur-de-Thé, three-act opéra bouffe, music by Charles Lecocq 1868: Le Soldat malgré lui, two-act operetta, music by Frédéric Barbier 1869: Le rajah de Mysore, opérette bouffe in one act (21 September 1869 Paris, Bouffes-Parisiens), music by Lecocq 1869: Le Carnaval d’un merle blanc, three-act comédie en vaudeville, Théâtre du Palais-Royal 1869: Le Docteur Purgandi, opérette bouffe in one act, music by Victor Robillard 1872: Les cent vierges, three-act operetta, with Clairville, music by Lecocq 1875: La Blanchisseuse de Berg-op-Zoom, three acts, music by Léon Vasseur 1870: Le Pompon, three-act opéra comique, music by Lecocq 1877: Le grand mogol, opéra bouffe in three acts, music by Audran (revised, in four acts for Paris in 1884) 1878: Madame Favart, three acts, music by Offenbach 1873: Les Braconniers, opéra bouffe in three acts, music by Offenbach 1879: Les noces d'Olivette, three-act opéra comique, music by Edmond Audran 1880: La Fille du tambour-major, three-act opéra comique, music by Offenbach 1880: Le Siège de Grenade, four-act vaudeville 1881: La Mère des compagnons, three-act opéra comique, music by Hervé 1881: La Mascotte, three-act opéra comique, music by Audran 1881: Les forfaits de Pipermans, one-act vaudeville 1882: Bocace, adaptation of German libretto into three-act opéra comique, music by Suppé (as Boccaccio) 1882: Gillette de Narbonne, opéra comique in three acts, music by Audran 1882: Le Truc d’Arthur, three-act comedy 1883: La Picarde, three-act opéra comique, music by Audran 1883: La Princesse de Canarie, three-act opéra comique, music by Lecocq 1883: L’Oiseau bleu, three-act opéra comique, music by Lecocq 1883: La Dormeuse éveillée, three-act opéra comique, music by Audran 1885: Pervenche, three-act opérette, music by Audran 1885: Les Noces d’un réserviste, four-act vaudeville 1886: La cigale et la fourmi, opéra comique in ten tableaux, music by Audran 1887: Surcouf, three-act opéra comique with a prologue, music by Robert Planquette 1890: Le Voyage de Suzette, opérette in three acts music by Vasseur (first performed 20 January 1890, Théâtre de la Gaîté)
In collaboration with Labiche 1875: Doit-on le dire?, three-act comedy 1874: Madame est trop belle, three-act comedy. 1875: Les Samedis de Madame, three-act comedy.
References
External links List of Duru works at the Index to Opera and Ballet Sources Online Alfred Duru on Wikisource Alfred Duru on Artlyrique.fr Alfred Duru on Alfred Duru on Amis et passionnés du Père Lachaise