Nicknamed "les jumeaux siamois du vaudeville" (the
Siamese twins of vaudeville), they headed the
Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin from 1840 to 1845. In 1845, Hippolyte took sole charge of the
Théâtre du Vaudeville, then of the
Théâtre des Variétés from 1854 to 1869, where he instituted a repertoire solely consisting of operettas. It was under Hippolyte's leadership that
Jacques Offenbach created his best-known works:
La Belle Hélène,
Barbe-Bleue,
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein and
La Périchole. In 1869, on behalf of his son Léon, Hippolyte acquired the
Cirque-Impérial and renamed it the
Théâtre du Château d'Eau, after its proximity to the Place du Château d'Eau (now
Place de la République). He then took it over after his son's premature death in March 1870. (After several failures, in 1904 that theatre became one of the most famous Parisian music halls, as the Alhambra.) As playwrights, the Cogniard brothers produced an impressive number of plays, fééries and reviews from 1830 onwards, collaborating with
Hector Crémieux,
Louis-François Clairville and
Paul Siraudin. These included
The Tricolour Cockade,
La Révolte des modistes,
Les Deux Borgnes, ''L'Agnès de Belleville
(with Paul de Kock), Bobêche et Galimafré
, La Fille de l'air
, Les Enfants du délire
, Le Naufrage de la Méduse
, Les Mille et une nuits
, La Biche aux bois
, La Cornemuse du diable
, Le Royaume du calembourg
, La Poudre de perlimpinpin
, Le Monde camelotte
, Les Bibelots du diable
, La Grande Marée
, Sans queue ni tête
(with Crémieux), La Reine Crinoline ou Le royaume des femmes
, Les Compagnons de la truelle
(with Clairville), Les Bêtises d'hier
(with Clairville and Siraudin) and their greatest success, La Chatte blanche'' (a féerie put on in 1852). '' Their 1831 play
The Tricolour Cockade set during the
French conquest of Algeria gave rise to the concept of
chauvinism named after the character
Nicolas Chauvin, a young and excessively patriotic recruit who idealises the former
French Emperor Napoleon. ==Notes and references==