BARBIER Paul Jules

BARBIER Paul Jules (8 March 1825 – 16 January 1901) was a French poet, writer and opera librettist who often wrote in collaboration with Michel Carré. He was a noted Parisian bon vivant and man of letters.

A selection of his libretti for extant operas (those co-written with Carré are shown with an asterisk) include:

Charles Gounod:

La Colombe, Faust (*), Le médecin malgré lui (*), Philémon et Baucis, Polyeucte, La reine de Saba and Roméo et Juliette (*)

Giacomo Meyerbeer:

Le pardon de Ploërmel (later revised as Dinorah)

Jacques Offenbach:

The Tales of Hoffmann

Camille Saint-Saëns:

Le timbre d'argent

He wrote the scenario for Léo Delibes' ballet Sylvia. Charles Gounod wrote incidental music to Barbier's play Jeanne d'Arc, and the libretto to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's opera The Maid of Orleans was partially based on it.