Eugène Bertrand

Eugène Bertrand
Born	15 January 1834 Paris
Died	31 December 1899 (aged 65) Paris
Occupation	Comedian, theatre managing director
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Eugène Bertrand (15 January 1834 – 31 December 1899) was a French comedian, theatre managing director and opera house director.^[1]

Biography

He made his debut in theatre at the Théâtre des Jeunes-Artistes then at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris. From 1859 to 1865, he was a comedian then theatre manager in the United-States. In 1865, he was hired at the Théâtre du Parc in Brussels, before he briefly managed the two theatres in Lille (northern France). He then was managing director of the Théâtre des Variétés from 1869 to 1891. He was director of the Opéra Garnier from 1 January 1892 until his death in 1899, first in association with Campocasso, and then from 1894, with Pedro Gailhard.^[2] At the Opéra he was the first to successfully produce operas by Richard Wagner and also mounted a new production Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila (1892) and gave the first performance of Massenet's Thaïs (1894).^[3]

Notes

1. "Eugène Bertrand" at the artlyrique.fr website, accessed 4 May 2016.
2. Les lettres reçues par lui dans ses différentes fonctions conservées aux Archives nationales sous les cotes AB XIX 4127 à 4129 (Voir la notice dans la salle des inventaires virtuelle des Archives nationales)
3. Forman 2010, pp. 51–52.

Bibliography

• Forman, Edward (2010). Historical Dictionary of French Theater. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810849396.