Edmond Rostand

Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. Rostand is associated with neo-romanticism and is best known for his play "Cyrano de Bergerac." Rostand's romantic plays provided an alternative to the naturalistic theatre popular during the late 19th century. One of Rostand's works, "Les Romanesques," has been adapted as the highly successful musical comedy "The Fantasticks."

Rostand became the youngest writer to be elected to the Académie Française. Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. When Rostand was twenty years old, his first play, a one-act comedy, Le Gant rouge, was performed at the Cluny Theatre on 24 August 1888, but it was almost unnoticed. He and his fiancé Rosemonde Gérard became friends with Emmanuel Chabrier in 1889. 

The composer quickly set three of his poems (and two of hers) to music; the following year, the two collaborated on À la musique for a mutual friend's housewarming. In 1890, Rostand published a volume of poems called Les Musardises. The same year he offered a one-act Pierrot play in verse to the director of the Théâtre François. This allowed him to write for the state theatre a three-act play, also in verse, as are all of Rostand's plays. 

He considered himself a poet, whether writing plays or poetry. The resulting play, Les Romanesques, was produced at the Théâtre François on 21 May 1894. It was a great success, and he started his career as a dramatist. This play would be adapted in 1960 by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt into the long-running American musical The Fantasticks. 

Rostand's next play was written for Sarah Bernhardt. La Princesse Lointaine was based on the story of the 12th-century troubadour Jaufre Rudel and his love for Hodierna of Jerusalem (who is the archetypal princess lointaine character). This idealistic play opened on 5 April 1895 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. The part of Melisandre (based on Hodierna's daughter Melisende of Tripoli) was created by Sarah Bernhardt, but the play was unsuccessful. 

When Bernhardt performed it in London later the same year, it received a bad review from George Bernard Shaw, but this was not surprising considering Shaw's bias for realism. Rambaldo di Vaqueiras: I Monferrato, 1922 1922 verse drama by Nino Berrini(it) is based on La Princesse Lointaine.