Charles Cuvillier (24 April 1877 – 14 February 1955) was a French composer of operetta. He won his greatest successes with the operettas La reine s'amuse (1912, played as The Naughty Princess in London) and with The Lilac Domino , which became a hit in 1918 in London.
Cuvillier was born in Paris, and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Gabriel Fauré and Jules Massenet. [1] He began writing for the Paris musical stage and had a success with Avant-hier matin (1905), a small scale work with piano accompaniment. [2] Later stage works to achieve success in France and abroad included Son p'tit frère (1907), his first collaboration with André Barde, and La reine s'amuse (1912). [2] The latter (also known as La reine joyeuse) featured Cuvillier's biggest hit, "Ah! la troublante volupté". [1] Before the First World War he made a career in Germany as well as France. [2] The second of his two works written for German theatres, Flora Bella, was playing in Munich and had its run immediately brought to a stop when war was declared. [3] Cuvillier fought in the trenches against Germany during the war, [4] and thereafter made his career in France and the U.K. [2]
Cuvillier was popular in England after the First World War. Avant-hier matin played with success in London as Wild Geese, [1] and La reine joyeuse ran for 280 performances as The Naughty Princess . [5] His greatest international success was the operetta The Lilac Domino , originally Der lila Domino (Leipzig, 1912). [1] The critic Andrew Lamb writes that Cuvillier composed "light, insinuating music, distinguished by typically French phrasing." [1]
Cuvillier also composed film music, including Mon amant l'assassin (1931), Occupe-toi d'Amélie (1932) and Story of a Poor Young Man (1935). [2]
Cuvillier died in Paris in 1955, at the age of 77. [1]
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Der lila Domino is an operetta in three acts composed by Charles Cuvillier. The original German libretto is by Emmerich von Gatti and Bela Jenbach, about a gambling count who falls in love at a masquerade ball with a noblewoman wearing a lilac domino mask.
André Barde was the pseudonym of André Bourdonneau, a French writer best known for his libretti for operettas. He was active from 1895-1936. In 1895 he collaborated with composer Marcel Legay on Chansons cruelles, chansons douces, a book of songs. He frequently collaborated with composer Charles Cuvillier - Son petit frère (1907), Afgar (1909), La Reine joyeuse (1912), Sappho (1912), Florabella (1921), and Nonnette (1922) being some examples. He wrote four revues produced at the Théâtre Marigny, in 1910, 1912, and 1913 with Michel-Antoine Carré and in 1914 by himself. His works include Pas sur la bouche, which has been filmed twice.
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