Charles Nuitter

Charles Nuitter was born Charles-Louis-Étienne Truinet, and took his pen name as an anagram of his surname. He practised at the Paris bar before the theatre absorbed him, and wrote or translated some eighty pieces, including the ballet Coppélia and French versions of Wagner, among them the Tannhäuser made for the Paris production of 1861 under the composer's own direction. In 1866 he became the first archivist of the Paris Opéra and effectively created its library, gathering up scores, designs and administrative papers that had been scattered or neglected. That collection is now the Bibliothèque-musée de l'Opéra.