Robert de Flers

Who was Robert de Flers?

Robert de Flers was a French playwright, opera librettist, and journalist.

He entered the Lycée Condorcet in 1888 where he studied law with the initial ambition of entering diplomatic service. He met and befriended fellow student and writer Marcel Proust, and that relationship had a great influence upon him. Proust exposed Flers to art, literature, and music and his interests soon switched from law to writing, journalism, and literature. The two men enjoyed a lifelong friendship.

After completing his studies, he toured throughout Asia in the mid-1890s. The event inspired his earliest writings: the novel La Courtisane Taïa et son singe vert, the short story Ilsée, princesse de Tripoli, and the travel narrative Vers l’Orient. Upon returning to Paris, he was approached by composer Edmond Audran to write the libretto for his operetta La reine des reines. The worked premiered on 14 October 1896 at the Théâtre de l'Eldorado in Strasbourg. His next libretto was for Gaston Serpette's vaudeville-operetta Shakspeare! which premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens on 23 November 1899.