James Planché

James Planché 1835

James Robinson Planché (born February 27, 1796 in Piccadilly , London , † May 30, 1880 in Chelsea (London) ) was a British playwright and historian . He was one of the most important exponents of early Victorian melodrama .

The descendant of French Huguenots who fled to England was married to the playwright Elizabeth St. George . Planché was a founding member of the Garrick Club in 1831.

In the German-speaking area, Planché is best known as the librettist of the opera Oberon by Carl Maria von Weber . However, his main works are contributions to English melodrama and other popular theater genres such as extravaganza , burlesque , farce and pantomime . - Out of the tradition of the London theater legislation, which reserved the speaking pieces to the Patent Theaters , numerous theater genres with a high proportion of music and dance arose.

Spectacular historical and fairy-tale materials made up the main part of Planché's stage texts. The melodrama The Vampire (1820), in which the vampire could appear and disappear by sinking into the stage floor, became famous . From 1818, Planché delivered plays for the Adelphi Theater as a resident author until he moved to Covent Garden . He has also worked for the Theater Royal Drury Lane , the Olympic Theater and the Theater Royal Haymarket . In 1825 he introduced an early form of the revue in London based on the French model .

Planché was one of the pioneers of realistic theater decorations in Great Britain, similar to the Meininger in the German-speaking area. He also promoted the enforcement of copyright law for dramatic works. In his later days his interest in theatrical costumes led him to extensive historical and heraldic studies.

literature

• Colin Lee: James Robinson Planché: 19th-century dramatist, antiquary and herald. In: Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 28: 2003, pp. 22-32.