Favart Charles Simon, *13 November 1710 Paris, †12 March 1792 Paris, French comedy writer and librettist. In 1732, he made his debut in Paris as a playwright at the Théâtre des Marionettes; in 1743, he was engaged by the Opéra Comique, where he staged most of his works. In 1745, he married the actress and singer Marie Justine Benoîte Du Ronceray, later known as Madame Favart. She played the leading roles in her husband’s works. In 1746, Favart moved to Brussels with his wife. In 1750, he returned to Paris, and from 1758 to 1769 he was director of the Opéra Comique. He wrote around 150 works for musical theatre.
Favart occupies a prominent place in the history of opera as a co-founder of the opéra comique, which developed from vaudeville. He also wrote comedies, ballets, pantomimes, parodies and other works. His career can be divided into three periods: I (up to 1740) – literary works with elements of vaudeville; II (1741–62) – vaudeville comedies and parodic arias; III (from 1762) – opéra comique librettos, in which the couplet and the parodic aria were brought to perfection. Favart’s texts were characterised by consistency and a strong connection to the music. The characters in Favart’s plays usually come from the countryside and are portrayed in a naïve, conventional manner, characteristic of the galant style. The playwright attached great importance to theatrical costumes and gestures. He was one of the first to include detailed stage directions in his librettos.
The music for Favart’s librettos was composed by: E.R. Duni (La chercheuse d’esprit, staged in Paris in 1741; La fée Urgèle ou Ce qui plaît aux dames, staged in Fontainebleau in 1765, titled Wieszczka Urzella with music by J. Elsner, staged in Warsaw in 1806; Les moissonneurs, staged in Paris in 1768), A. Grétry, A. d’Auvergne (La coquette trompée, staged in Fontainebleau in 1753), F. Philidor, P. Monsigny, Ch.W. Gluck (Cythère assiégée, staged in Schwetzingen in 1759), P.O. Gibert (Soliman second ou Les trois sultanes, staged in Paris in 1761) and others. Some of Favart’s librettos gained particular popularity, such as Les amours de Bastien et Bastienne (music by C. Sodi, staged in Paris in 1753; also used by Mozart in 1768) or Annette et Lubin (music by A. Blaise, staged in Paris in 1762) and others. Occasionally, Favart selected the music for his own librettos, borrowing it from works by other composers, or composed his own, using popular folk melodies (e.g. Le bal bourgeois with arias composed by Favart, among others, staged in Paris in 1738).
In addition to his original compositions, Favart also wrote librettos that were adaptations of works by other composers. He became famous as a master of parodies based on operas by, amongst others, J.B. Lully (Farinette, staged in Paris in 1741 – a parody of Proserpine), J.Ph. Rameau (Arlequin Dardanus, staged in Paris in 1740 – a parody of Dardanus; Hippolyte et Aride, staged in Paris in 1742 – a parody of the opera of the same title; Les Indes dansantes, staged in Paris in 1751 – a parody of Les Indes galantes; Les ensorcelés ou Jeannot et Jeannette, staged in Paris in 1757 – a parody of Les surprises de l’amour) and Ch.W. Gluck (La noce interrompue, staged in Paris in 1758 – a parody of Alceste, Les rêveries renouvelées des Grecs, staged in Paris in 1779 – a parody of Iphigénie en Tauride). Favart’s works were not only translated into many languages, but also adapted by French and foreign librettists.
Literature: C. S. Favart Mémoires et correspondance littéraire, 3 vols., Paris 1808; W. H. Pollock The Modern French Theatre with Critical Notes on Some of the Principal French Actors, n.p. 1878; A. Font Favart, l’opéra-comique et la comédie-vaudeville aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris 1894; P. J. Salvatore Favart’s Unpublished Plays, New York 1935.
