Trente Ans ou La Vie d'un Joueur

A melodrama by Victor Ducange and Dinaux.

The original text

Originally written by Jacques Félix Beudin and Prosper Goubaux, using the pseudonym "Dinaux", and then reworked by Victor Ducange. Described initially as a "Mélodrame en trois journées" ("A melodrama in three days").

It was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin, on 19 June 1827,with Frédérick Lemaître in the lead. Music by Alexandre Piccini, divertissement by Corally and décor by Lefebvre. Published in Paris by Barba in 1827.

The play became quite a success and was republished and performed amny times, also in the 20th century. A film was made of it in 1975.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Dutch as Dertig Jaren, of Het Leven van een Dobbelaar. Apparently, according to documents in the archival collection "Stukken betreffende leden van de families Vitringa en Van Delden" it was copied from the first performance by A.J. van Delden Stevenz and his text is subtitled "Melodrama in drie tijdperken". However the first published Dutch translation, as Dertig Jaren, of Het Leven van een Dobbelaar, is credited to Bernard Antoine Fallée, subtitled a "tooneelspel, dat in drie dagen afspeelt" and published in Amsterdam by J.C. van Kesteren, 1828.