author
Maurice Ordonneau
1854–1916
A prolific French man of the theater, he wrote librettos, comedies, vaudevilles, and operettas that helped shape popular entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He also worked as a journalist and theater critic, moving easily between the stage and the press.
1 Audiobook
Niobe, All Smiles: A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts
by Harry Paulton, Maurice Ordonneau, Edward A. (Edward Antonio) Paulton
About the author
Born in Saintes, France, in 1854, Maurice Ordonneau became a remarkably productive dramatist, librettist, and composer. Sources on his life consistently describe him as an author of a large number of theatrical works, especially light comic forms such as operettas, opéra-bouffes, comedies, and vaudevilles.
Alongside his writing for the stage, he also worked in journalism. He was active as a theater critic, and reference sources note that he served in the world of French newspapers as well, showing how closely his career connected literary life, criticism, and performance.
Ordonneau died in 1916. Though he is not as widely remembered today as some of the composers and performers he worked with, his long list of collaborations and stage pieces makes him an important figure in the lively world of French popular theater of his era.