Le Vampire

Le Vampire is a French melodrama by Pierre Carmouche, Charles Nodier and Achille de Jouffry, with music by Alexandre Piccini.

The original text

The play was inspired by John Polidori’s tale, The Vampyre, published in 1819 and itself based on the piece Fragment of a Novel, written by Lord Byron in 1816. The French stage adaptation was first performed in Paris, on 13 June 1820, published in Paris by Barba, 1820.

Translations and adaptations

Adapted into English as The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles by James Robinson Planché, and described as described as "A Romantic Melodrama in two acts, preceded by an introductory vision". The adaptation was first performed at the English Opera House (Lyceum) on 9 August 1820, and published the same year by John Lowndes in London.

Performance history in South Africa

1837: Performed in English by the Private Amateur Company on 31 July 1837 in the Cape Town Theatre, alongside The Miller's Maid (Saville).

1838: Performed in English by the Private Amateur Company on Monday 9 April, 1838, alongside Love in Humble Life (Payne) and Amateurs and Actors (Peake).

Sources

https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Le_vampire.html?id=rlc_lwEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

F.C.L. Bosman. 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [1]: pp. 207,

http://www.unipr.it/arpa/dipling/GT/Seminari/cataldo.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Planch%C3%A9

Nunzia Cataldo, THEA : Teaching&Study Aids [2])

Donald Roy. 1986. Note on the sources, in Plays by James Robinson Planché: The Vampire, the Garrick Fever, Beauty and the Beast, Foutunio and His Seven Gifted Servants, The Golden Fleece, The Camp at the Olympic, The Discreet Princess. Cambridge: CUP Archive. (p.43)

Go to ESAT Bibliography