author
Maurice Ordonneau
1854–1916
A busy force in French musical theater, he helped shape the lively world of operettas, comedies, and vaudevilles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He also spent part of his career in journalism, linking the stage with the Paris 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 on June 18, 1854, Maurice Ordonneau became a prolific French dramatist, librettist, and composer. He is best remembered for contributing to a large number of theatrical works, especially operettas, opéra-bouffes, comedies, and vaudevilles, often in collaboration with other writers and musicians.
Alongside his work for the stage, he was active in journalism and is noted for having served as editor of the French newspaper Le Gaulois for a period in the late 19th century. That mix of literary, musical, and editorial work helped make him a well-connected figure in Parisian cultural life.
Ordonneau died in 1916. Though he is not as widely known today as some of the composers he worked with, his career shows how important librettists and dramatists were to the success of French popular theater in his era.