Don César de Bazan

A French melodrama in five acts by Dumanoir (Philippe-François Pinel, 1806-1865) and Adolphe d'Ennery (1811 – 1899).

The original text

This French play was written in 1844 and produced by Frédérick Lemaître on 30 July 1844 at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin. The play derived from Victor Hugo’s drama Ruy Blas, which had had its first performance in Paris at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on November 8, 1838. It featured a secondary character named Don César de Bazan, played by Frédérick Lemaitre, and a new melodrama by that name was commissioned and written to provide the actor with a lead role of his own.

Translations and adaptations

An opéra comique in four acts by Jules Massenet , entitled Don César de Bazan, said to be based on Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, was composed , to a French libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery, Philippe-François Pinel "Dumanoir" and Jules Chantepie, and first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 30 November 1872. (The involvement of Dumanoir and d'Ennery does suggest that the “libretto” may have in fact been their 1844 play.)

Three English versions of the play all appeared in 1844:

The first was by Gilbert Abbott a'Beckett (1811-1856) and Mark Lemon (1809-1870), entitled Don Caesar de Bazan (a drama in three acts), and had its première at the Princess's Theatre, London, on October 8th, 1844. Published in London by T. H. Lacy.

Caesar de Bazan, or, Love and Honour a drama, in three acts (or alternatively also called Don Caesar de Bazan, or, Love and Honour) by Benjamin Webster and Dion Boucicault. (It is sometimes credited to Dion Boucicault only.) This premièred at The Adelphi on 14 October, 1844.

The third English version of the story was by Charles Mathews (1803–1878) and entitled Match for a King. It was first done at the Haymarket in 1844.

In 1878 the a'Beckett and Lemon version was produced as The Comedy of Don Caesar de Bazan by Edwin Booth, and published by Winter under this title.

Performance history in South Africa

1852: The Webster and Boucicault version was performed on Tuesday 13 April and again on 21 April by the Amateur Company under the title Don Caesar de Bazan, or, Love and Honour in the Garrison Theatre, as one of three fundraisers for the survivors of the troop ship Birkenhead. The Thumping Legacy (Morton) was played as afterpiece.