Les P'tites Michu

Les p'tites Michu is an opérette in three acts, composed by André Messager. The libretto was by Albert Vanloo and Georges Duval. It has been produced in English under the title The Little Michus.

Dismayed by the Paris reception for his 1896 piece, Le Chevalier d’Harmental, Messager retreated to London vowing to write no more. But when he received the libretto for Les p'tites Michu in 1897 from Vanloo and Duval, he was inspired to finish the new operetta in three months. Encouraged by this success, the same team produced Messager's most successful operetta, Véronique, in 1898.[1]

Performance history

Mariette Sully in Les p'tites Michu in Paris in 1899

The first performance was at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, on 16 November 1897, starring Odette Dulac in one of the title roles, with the production running for over 150 performances. A revival at the same theatre in 1899 starred Mariette Sully and Jean Périer.[2]

Vienna first saw the operetta on 16 September 1899 at the Carltheater.[3]

The piece enjoyed a long run in London under the title The Little Michus. The English adaptation was by Henry Hamilton, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank, and was produced at Daly's Theatre, opening on 29 April 1905 and running for 401 performances. The London production starred Adrienne Augarde and Mabel Green, with Robert Evett, Willie Edouin, Huntley Wright, Amy Augarde, Willie Warde, Ambrose Manning, Louis Bradfield, Lily Elsie, and the dancer Adeline Genée.[4] Later, Henry Lytton joined the cast, replacing Bradfield.[5] A bit of comic business introduced during the London run of the show involved a fictional animal called the Gazeka, which became a London fad.

The Little Michus had a Broadway run in 1907 and was an international hit, continuing to be revived thereafter.

Synopsis

In 1793, the wife of the Marquis des Ifs dies in childbirth. The Marquis, before disappearing to evade arrest, entrusts the infant girl to the Michus, paying the family a sum of money that allows them to open a prosperous shop. The Michus have a daughter of their own. While bathing the two babies, Mr. Michu mixes them up and cannot tell which is which.

Adrienne Augarde, c. 1908
Act I

By 1810, the girls, Blanche-Marie and Marie-Blanche have grown up together, believing themselves to be twins, and have gone to school under the military Miss Herpin. Aristide, the Michu's clerk, is in love with one of the girls but is not sure which. The Marquis des Ifs, now a general, sends Bagnolet to find his daughter, whose hand he has promised to lieutenant Gaston Rigaud, the officer who saved his life. It turns out that Gaston is Miss Herpin's nephew, and while visiting his aunt, the girls meet the handsome lieutenant, and both are enchanted. Bagnolet finds the Michus. Embarrassed at being unable to name the general's daughter, they agree to meet the general.

Act II

The general and his guests await the arrival of his daughter. When the Michus arrive, the general is impatient with their explanation: he wants to know which girl is his daughter and will marry the lieutenant. Knowing that her sister is enamored of Gaston, Blanche-Marie decides to make a sacrifice and identifies her sister as the general's daughter.

Act III

With a sad heart, Blanche-Marie resigns herself to marry Aristede, whom she finds exceedingly uninteresting. On the other hand, and to the astonishment of her fiancé and the Marquis, Marie-Blanche goes to help at the shop at every opportunity. She realizes that she has made a mistake: her sister loves Gaston, and she herself would prefer the common life of the shop and marriage to Aristide. The day of the double wedding, Marie-Blanche looks for a portrait of the Marquis' wife. Her idea is to dress Blanche-Marie as the late Marchionesse. The resemblance is astonishing. The Marquis believes that he sees his wife: Blanche-Marie must be his daughter.

The two couples are sorted out and all ends happily.

Roles

Robert Evett as Gaston and Willie Edouin as General des If in the London premiere
Role Voice type Premiere Cast, 16 November 1897
(Conductor: André Messager)
Général des Ifs bass Barral
Michu baritone Paul Regnard
Aristide tenor Maurice Lamy
Bagnolet tenor Brunais
Gaston Rigaud baritone Henri Marchand
Marie-Blanche soprano Alice Bonheur
Blanche-Marie soprano Odette Dulac
Mlle Herpin mezzo-soprano Léonie Laporte
Madame Michu soprano Vigouroux
Madame Rousselin soprano Lérys
Madame Saint-Phar soprano Yrven

Musical numbers (English adaptation)

Act I - The Playground of Mlle. Herpin's School in Paris - circa 1810

Adeline Genée in the original London production, 1905

Act II - Salon at General Des Ifs

Act III - Michu's Shop, Les Halles

The Gazeka

George Graves replaced Willie Edouin as General des Ifs, and in 1905 he introduced a bit of by-play involving a fictional and comical-looking cryptid called the Gazeka, also known as Monckton's Gazeka or the Papuan Devil-Pig, an animal said to have been seen on Papua New Guinea.

The Gazeka became a fad of the season, and a competition was mounted to encourage artists to make sketches of what the beast might look like. Charles Folkard won the competition, and the Gazeka appeared in the form of items like novelty jewellery and was taken up by Perrier, the sparkling water makers, for a series of advertisements. The Gazeka also featured in a special song and dance in the entertainment Akezag, at the London Hippodrome at Christmas, 1905.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ French site with information about the operetta, including background, synopsis, cast and discography
  2. ↑ Gänzl, Kurt and Andrew Lamb. Gänzl's Book of the Musical Theatre. The Bodley Head, London, 1988.
  3. ↑ Loewenberg A. Annals of Opera. London, John Calder, 1978.
  4. ↑ The Play Pictorial, vol. 6, pp. 29–56, Greening & Co., Ltd., 1905, accessed 11 December 2009
  5. ↑ Jones, Brian. Lytton: Gilbert and Sullivan's Jester (2006), p. 106
  6. ↑ Gazeka and Graves in The Little Michus at John Culme's Footlight Notes.

References

External links

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