Marcel Paul Pagnol was a French novelist and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionable than it once was, Pagnol is still regarded as one of France's greatest 20th-century writers and is notable for the fact that he excelled in every medium—memoir, novel and film. Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône department, in southern France near Marseille, the eldest son of schoolteacher Joseph PagnolA and seamstress Augustine Lansot. B Marcel Pagnol grew up in Marseille with his younger brothers Paul and René, younger sister Germaine. In July 1904, the family rented the Bastide Neuve, – a house in the sleepy Provençal village of La Treille – for the summer holidays, the first of many spent in the hilly countryside between Aubagne and Marseille. About the same time, Augustine's health, which had never been robust, began to noticeably decline and on 16 June 1910 she succumbed to a chest infection and died, aged 36.

Joseph remarried in 1912. In 1913, at the age of 18, Marcel passed his baccalaureate in philosophy and started studying literature at the University in Aix-en-Provence; when World War I broke out, he was called up into the infantry at Nice but in January 1915 he was discharged because of his poor constitution. On 2 March 1916, he married Simone Colin in November graduated in English, he became an English teacher, teaching at a lycée in Marseille. In 1922, he moved to Paris, where he taught English until 1927, when he decided instead to devote his life to playwriting. During this time, he belonged to a group of young writers, in collaboration with one of whom, Paul Nivoix, he wrote the play, Merchants of Glory, produced in 1924; this was followed, by Topaze, a satire based on ambition. Exiled in Paris, he returned nostalgically to his Provençal roots, taking this as his setting for his play Marius, which became the first of his works to be adapted into a film in 1931. Separated from Simone Collin since 1926, he formed a relationship with the young English dancer Kitty Murphy.

Their son Jacques Pagnol was born on 24 September 1930. In 1929, on a visit to London, Pagnol attended a screening of one of the first talking films and he was so impressed that he decided to devote his efforts to cinema, he suggested adapting his play Marius for cinema. This was directed by Alexander Korda and released on 10 October 1931, it became one of the first successful French-language talking films. In 1932 Pagnol founded his own film production studios in the countryside near Marseille. Over the next decade Pagnol produced his own films, taking many different roles in the production – financier, script writer, studio head, foreign-language script translator – and employing the greatest French actors of the period. On 4 April 1946, Pagnol was elected to the Académie française, taking his seat in March 1947, the first filmmaker to receive this honour. In his films, Pagnol transfers his playwriting talents onto the big screen, his editing style is somberly reserved. As a pictorial naturalist, Pagnol relies on film as art to convey a deeper meaning rather than as a tool to tell a story.

Pagnol took great care in the type of actors he employed, hiring local actors to appear in his films to highlight their unique accents and culture. Like his plays, Pagnol's films emphasize musicality; the themes of many of Pagnol's films revolve around the acute observation of social rituals. Using interchangeable symbols and recurring character roles, such as proud fathers and rebellious children, Pagnol illuminates the provincial life of the lower class. Notably, Pagnol frequently compares women and land, showing both can be barren or fertile. Above all, Pagnol uses all this to illustrate the importance of their renewal. In 1945, Pagnol remarried, they had Frédéric and Estelle. Estelle died at the age of two. Pagnol was so devastated that he returned to live in Paris, he went back to writing plays, but after his next piece was badly received he decided to change his job once more and began writing a series of autobiographical novels – Souvenirs d'enfance – based on his childhood experiences. In 1957, the first two novels in the series, La Gloire de mon père and Le château de ma mère were published to instant acclaim.

The third Le Temps des secrets was published in 1959, the fourth Le Temps des Amours was to remain unfinished and was not published until 1977, after his death. In the meantime, Pagnol turned to a second series, L'Eau des Collines – Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources – which focused on the machinations of Provençal peasant life at the beginning of the twentieth century and were published in 1962. Pagnol adapted his own film Manon des Sources, with his wife Jacqueline in the title role, into two novels, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, collectively titled L'Eau des Collines. Marcel Pagnol died in Paris on 18 April 1974, he is buried in Marseille at the cemetery La Treille, along with his mother, father and wife. His boyhood friend, David Magnan, died at the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918, is buried nearby. Pagnol was known for his translations of Shakespeare and Virgil: 1944: Le Son

Renate Behle is an Austrian operatic mezzo-soprano and soprano who made an international career, based in Germany. She was professor of voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg from 2000 to 2010. Born in Graz, Behle studied voice there and in Rome for six years. In parallel, she studied history and philosophy at the University of Graz, her first engagement as a lyric mezzo-soprano was in 1968 at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where she performed several trousers roles. In 1971, she married an oboist of the NDR and only performed in guest roles, such as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, as Cherubino in his Le nozze di Figaro at the Theater Hagen, as the Gymnasiast in Berg's Lulu in Lisbon and Graz; when their son Daniel was born in 1974, she took a position as first alto in the NDR Chor to have more time for her family. During that period, she performed as a soloist in recitals. From 1979, she was again a lyric mezzo-soprano, now at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, where she performed roles such as Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, the title role of Bizet's Carmen, Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto, Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, Hänsel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Rosina in Rossini's Der Barbier von Sevilla which she sang at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, stepping in for Agnes Baltsa.

From 1981, she performed as a member of the Staatsoper Hannover where she stayed for 15 years, singing more dramatic roles such as Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos. In 1987, she appeared at the Landestheater Detmold as Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre, her first soprano role. In 1995, she appeared in the title role of Salome at La Scala in Milan and in 2001 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the title role of Beethoven's Fidelio, a role which she performed at the Vienna State Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Salzburg Festival, she returned to mezzo-soprano roles in 2007. On 9 February 1992, she participated in the premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Die Eroberung von Mexico at the Hamburgische Staatsoper. Other roles in contemporary opera included Regine in the German premiere of Rolf Liebermann's La Forêt at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1988 and repeated at the Oper Frankfurt, Kassandra in Aribert Reimann's Troades, Agave in Henze's Die Bassariden in Hamburg and the Bavarian State Opera.

In 2017, she appeared as Sara in the premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's opera Lot at the Staatsoper Hannover, alongside Franz Mazura as Abraham. Since 1971, Behle has lived in Hamburg, where she taught as professor of voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg from 2000 to 2010. Recordings by Behle are held by the German National Library, including several CDs: Zemlinsky: Der Kreidekreis, conducted by Stefan Soltesz Louis Spohr: Jessonda Schumann: Genoveva Schoeck: Penthesilea Wolfgang Rihm: Die Eroberung von Mexico Beethoven: Ninth Symphony She appears on two DVDs of Stuttgart opera productions: Beethoven: Fidelio Wagner: Die Walküre Jörg Loskill: Renate Behle. Porträt. In: Opernwelt, March 1983, pp. 26/27. Wolfgang Denker: Renate Behle. Ich mache Nägel mit Köpfen. Interview und Porträt. In: Orpheus, May 1986, pp. 332–336. Literature by and about Renate Behle in the German National Library catalogue Official website Renate Behle discography at Discogs Renate Behle Operabase Renate Behle fmb-hochschulwettbewerb.de

Nicolas Letourneux was a French preacher and ascetical writer of Jansenistic tendencies. Letourneux was born at Rouen, his parents were poor, but the talents he displayed at an early age attracted the attention of some wealthy benefactors, whose assistance enabled him to study the humanities at the Jesuit College in Paris, philosophy at the Collège des Grassins. To Dr. Jean Hersant, his teacher at the latter institution, may be traced his Jansenistic views. Ordained priest at Rouen in 1662, he served for some years as curate there. About 1670 he removed to Paris, became associated with the Port-Royalists, began to cultivate Jansenistic asceticism, he exchanged his soutane for a coarse grey robe and abstained from celebrating Mass, to expiate in this manner what he esteemed his guilt in having accepted ordination at so early an age. His intercourse with Lemaître restored him to more orthodox Catholic views, his sermons at various Paris churches placed him in the front rank of the preachers of his day, in 1675 his work on the text Martha, thou art careful won the Balzac prize for eloquence awarded by the French Academy.

In such esteem was he held by his spiritual superiors that Archbishop de Harlay appointed him, in 1679, temporary confessor of the nuns of Port-Royal, a member of the archiepiscopal commission for the emendation of the Breviary. His relations with the leading Jansenists, soon awakened distrust, he found it necessary to retire, in 1682, to the Priory of Villiers-sur-Fère, a benefice granted him by his patron, Cardinal Colbert of Rouen. In this retirement he devoted the remainder of his life to his ascetical compositions, he died in Paris. Histoire de la vie de Jesus-Christ Le catéchisme de la pénitence L'Année chrétienne, ou les Messes des Dimanches, Féries et Fêtes de toute l'année, en latin et en français, avec l'explication des Epîtres et des Evangiles et un abrégé de la Vie des Saints, dont on fait l'Office. Of this work Letourneux wrote nine volumes, two were added by the Belgian Jansenist, Ruth d'Ans. Six volumes were published before 1686; the work was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum on 7 Sept. 1695.

Principes et règles de la vie chrétienne Explication littéraire et morale de l'épître de S. Paul aux Romains Bréviaire Romain en latin et français, condemned by the archiepiscopal authorities as heretical and for containing innovation contrary to the spirit and practice of the Church; the episcopal ban was subsequently removed, the work was never placed on the Roman Index. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Kennedy, Thomas. "Nicolas Letourneux". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton. Cites: Dict. des livres Jansénist Ste. Beuve, Port-Royal, V. vi, 2 Louis Mayeul Chaudon and Delandine, Dict. univ. Hist. Crit. Et Bibliogr Louis Moréri, Le Grand Dictionnaire historique Jungmann in Kirchenlexikon