Gabriel Astruc
| Gabriel Astruc | |
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Gabriel Astruc
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| Born | 14 March 1864 Bordeaux |
| Died | 7 July 1938 (aged 74) Paris |
| Occupation | Journalist, agent, promoter, theatre manager, theatrical impresario, playwright |
Gabriel Astruc.jpg
Gabriel Astruc (14 March 1864 – 7 July 1938) was a French journalist, agent, promoter, theatre manager, theatrical impresario, and playwright whose career connects many of the best-known incidents and personalities of Belle Epoque Paris.
Born in Bordeaux, Astruc was the son of Élie Aristide Astruc (1831–1905), a rabbi (Grand Rabbi of Belgium from 1866–1879), and began his career working for publisher Paul Ollendorff, and as a columnist from 1885 through 1895. As a regular at Montmartre's prototypically bohemian Le Chat Noir cabaret, he befriended a young Erik Satie and wrote articles and theater pieces under the pen name Surtac. In 1897 he founded a music publishing company with his father-in-law Wilhelm Enoch, by 1900 he had introduced the luxury magazine Musica, and by 1904 had become a concert promoter.
In this period he was the booking agent for Mata Hari. Astruc booked Hari into the Paris Olympia in August 1905, and would manage her appearances for the next ten years, through the height of her considerable fame. He also served as booking agent for Feodor Chaliapin, Arthur Rubinstein, and Wanda Landowska, but not Isadora Duncan, whom he considered too subtle to attract a sizable audience.
From 1905 through 1912 Astruc brought a long list of musical giants to Paris under the banner "Great Season of Paris", including an Italian season with Enrico Caruso and Australian soprano Nellie Melba in 1905, the creation of Salome under the baton of Richard Strauss in 1907, the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev in 1909, the Metropolitan Opera conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1910, and Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien (text by Gabriele D'Annunzio) in 1911.
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