Pierre-Alfred Ravel

His most celebrated role was Fadinard in Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (The Italian Straw Hat) Ravel was born in Bordeaux, the son of a horse dealer.

His first major role was in a piece called Tourlourou, where, according to Henry Lyonnet's Dictionnaire des comédiens français (1912), he showed "a charming verve in the gallant and vivacious character of Fleur d'amour".

"To list Ravel's creations at the Palais-Royal", wrote one of his biographers, "is to put before the reader's eyes the greatest successes of this theatre from 1841 to 1862".

[5] He returned to France, and was engaged by the Théâtre du Gymnase Dramatique in October 1868 to recreate one of his earlier successes, Un monsieur qui suit les femmes (A man who pursues women), by Théodore Barrière and Adrien Decourcelle, first seen in 1850.

[1] In 1876 Ravel returned to the Palais-Royal in Mon mari est à Versailles, the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Les enfants du Capitaine Grant (1878) and Cendrillon (Cinderella, 1878).

"[6] Ravel had no thought of retirement, and in 1881, at the age of 70, he was on the verge of taking up a new post as stage manager of the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo when he died suddenly at Neuilly-sur-Seine.