Paul Collin

Paul Collin (12 July 1843, Conches-en-Ouche – 5 February 1915, Paris) was a French poet, writer, translator and librettist.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Collin's family produced administrative officers in the military, mail and law service as well as physicians. He started a professional career as a lawyer before marrying one of the daughters of Theodore Gobley, a French chemist known for research on the brain, who also discovered lecithin and phospholipids.

Poetry proved to be Collin's real vocation, and he went on to write libretti and song lyrics for a number of opera and cantata, collaborating with contemporary French music composers of the second half of the 19th century including Tchaikovsky, who used several of his shorter poetry works for songs. Collin published a collection of his work in 1886. The first award of the Prix Rossini in 1881 was made to Paul Collin and composer Marie, Countess of Grandval for the oratorio La fille de Jaïre. Collin also wrote as a critic for the journal Le Ménestrel.

Selected works include:

• La Naissance de Vénus, music by Gabriel Fauré (1900)
• La ronde des songes: scène fantastique, music by Clémence de Grandval (1880)
• La fille de Jaïre, oratorio, music by Clémence de Grandval (1881)
• Eternité, song, music by Clémence de Grandval (1883)
• Narcisse: Idylle antique pour solo et choeur, opera, music by Jules Massenet (1878)
• Ulysse a l'ile des Sirenes, cantata, music by Jules Massenet (1879)
• Attala, music by Juliette Folville (1890)
• Zaire, opera, music by Charles Lefebvre (1890)
• Rébecca, cantata, music by César Franck (1880–81)
• Amica, opera, music by Pietro Mascagni (1905)
• Déception, No. 2 of the Six French Songs, Op. 65, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1888)
• Sérénade ("J'aime dans le rayon"), No. 3 of the Six French Songs, Op. 65, music by Tchaikovsky (1888)
• Qu'importe que l'hiver, No. 4 of the Six French Songs, Op. 65, music by Tchaikovsky (1888)
• Rondel, No. 6 of the Six French Songs, Op. 65, music by Tchaikovsky (1888)

• "Paul Collin". Retrieved 21 June 2015. 

• Musique de chambre, poems, ed. Hachette
• Glas et carillons, poems, ed. Hachette
• Du grave au doux, poems, ed. Hachette, 1878
• Les Heures Paisibles, poems, ed. Hachette
• Judith, dramatic opera, music by Charles Lefebvre, ed. Mackar
• Poèmes Musicaux, ed. Tresse et Stock, 1886
• Poèmes sacrés et profanes