Frank Desprez




 

Frank Desprez (9 February 1853 – 25 November 1916) was an English playwright, essayist, and poet. He wrote more than twenty pieces for the theatre, as well as numerous shorter works, including his famous poem, Lasca.

Contents

Life and career

Desprez was born in Bristol, England, the eldest of the eleven children of Charles Desprez, a jeweler and silversmith. The family was of French descent. He was educated at Cosham School, Wiltshire and spent three years in his teens in the U.S. State of Texas. In 1883, Desprez married Jessie Louisa Potter Macqueen. They had a son and two daughters.

Librettist and assistant to Richard D'Oyly Carte

Desprez returned to Britain in 1875. His first piece written for the theatre shortly thereafter was an adaptation of La fille de Madame Angot. When this piece went on the road in 1876, he also wrote a companion piece for it called Happy Hampstead, which was set to music by theatrical agent and composer Richard D'Oyly Carte. Desprez became a close friend of Carte's and worked with him for many years as Carte's secretary.

At the same time, Desprez wrote the texts for ten short works for D'Oyly Carte, most of which accompanied the Gilbert and Sullivan operas on the bills at the Opera Comique and later the Savoy Theatre. These pieces had long runs in tandem with, and sometimes beyond, the runs of the principal pieces, and they were usually played on tour throughout Britain as companion pieces, benefit pieces and short-programme items. Working with composers such as Alfred Cellier and Edward Solomon, Desprez became perhaps the most popular librettist of one-act operas in Britain.

Desprez's most frequently played work was his 1879 two-act musical play, Tita in Thibet, which was later played in the British provices by the Majilton company more than a thousand times. It was written as a vehicle for the music hall star Kate Santley. W. H. Seymour, who would become the stage manager of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company for 20 years, also played in the piece. The story concerns an unusual marriage custom purportedly to be found "in out of the way parts of the world" such as Tibet. The customs of the country permit every wife to have four husbands. The reviewer from The Era did not find the piece "refined" enough for his taste.

Desprez's best work as a lyricist was The Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore, which played at the Savoy Theatre in 1891-92.

Poet, essayist, journalist, and editor

Desprez' best-known work, however, is a poem, Lasca, about a Mexican girl and her cowboy sweetheart caught in a cattle stampede "in Texas down by the Rio Grande." The ballad-like poem, first published in a London magazine in 1882, has often been reprinted, usually with deletions and changes, and recited in many parts of the English-speaking world. Between 1873 and 1882 at least four other of Desprez's poems had been published, two of which are about Texas.

In 1884, Desprez began writing for The Era, London's foremost theatre paper, and he became its editor in 1893, a position he held until illness forced him to retire in 1913. Desprez was also wrote dozens of essays on travel, art, music, and famous personalities that were published in English periodicals, most of them between 1905 and 1914.

Desprez died in London at the age of 63.

Theatrical Works

References

External links

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Lasca by Frank Desprez
I want free life and I want fresh air; And I sigh for the canter after the cattle, The crack of the whips like shots in a battle, The medley of horns and hoofs and heads. That wars and wrangles and scatters and spreads; ...
Double Easy Ranch
Lasca, by Frank Desprez
Frank Desprez's best-known work is the poem, "Lasca" about a Mexican girl and her cowboy sweetheart caught in a cattle stampede "in Texas down by the Rio Grande." The ballad-like poem, first published in The London Society: A Magazine ...
Val
Annabel Lee
I refer to The Mentor Book of Major American Poets, edited by Oscar Williams and Edwin Honig for this version. In comparison to "Annabel Lee," check out Frank Desprez's "Lasca." I'm curious if any one else was struck by similarity ...
KKJ
Music
The Nautch Girl: or, The Rajah of Chutneypore (libretto and music files), by George Dance, Frank Desprez, and Edward Solomon (multimedia at Boise State); Cox and Box (libretto, music, and commentary), by Francis Cowley Burnand and ...
JessicaBee
Spoleto USA: Schedule announced, tickets now on sale | Festival ...
The Westminster Choir also returns with Bach, Buxtehude, Josquin Desprez, Frank Martin, and Moses Hogan as just a few composers included in their program. For more scheduling and ticket purchasing information, visit Spoleto Festival ...
Wade
Traveller quotes, The Drifters, James Michener
-Frank Desprez For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. the great affair is to move. -Stevenson A steady patriot of the world alone, The friend of every nation but his own. -Canning ...
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Buy 900 Composers From Hildegard Of Bingen And Josquin Desprez To ...
buy 900 composers from hildegard of bingen and josquin desprez to igor stravinsky and frank zappa major works and dates of composition and time line of[...] Read on site.
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Richard D'Oyly Carte: Definition from Answers.com
He turned to old friends George Dance, Frank Desprez and Edward Solomon for his next piece, The Nautch Girl, which ran for a satisfying 200 performances in 1891–92. Carte then revived Solomon and Sydney Grundy's The Vicar of Bray, ...
Adygihu
Doctor Desprez. And it was her indefeasible belief that Jean-Marie ...
... prattling unqualified, space kind, impressive afraid, drink secretly, frank punctually, daunt overcome, resigned Irish, everybody bare, indulgein agonizing, insensate venture, passover hardship, aquantity lamentable, referee sort, ...
WMS.Nemo
Kammermusikkammer: Josquin Desprez (Josquin des Préz): Adieu mes ...
Taruskin Distilled - The grim history of the twentieth century - something Brahms or Franck could never have foreseen, to say nothing of Matthew Arnold or Charles O'Connell - pla... Vor 2 Tagen ...
Kate
Gloriana concert
Josquin Desprez (c1450-1521) Veni Sancte Spiritus Josquin Desprez (c1450-1521) Stabat mater. Josquin Desprez (c1450-1521) Qui habitat à24. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Sept Chansons Frank Martin (1890-1974) Mass for Double Choir ...
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