''La Princesse de Trébizonde'' is an

opéra bouffe ''Opéra bouffe'' (, plural: ''opéras bouffes'') is a genre of mid- to late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, inspiring the genre's name. It ...

with music by

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

and text by Étienne Tréfeu and

Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter was a French librettist, translator, writer and librarian born in Paris, France, on 24 April 1828. He died there on 23 February 1899 after suffering a stroke a few days before.Cooper J: Nuitter, Charles-Louis-Étie ...

. The work was first given in two acts at the

Theater Baden-Baden Theater Baden-Baden-22-gje

Theater Baden-Baden at Goethepl ...

on 31 July 1869 and subsequently presented in a revised three-act version at the

Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens The Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens () is a Parisian theatre founded in 1855 by the composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers ...

on 7 December of the same year.

Background

1869 was a productive and successful year for Offenbach. ''

Vert-Vert ''Vert-Vert'' is an opéra comique in three acts by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Charles Nuitter, first performed on 10 March 1869 at the Paris Opéra-Comique. Based on the 1734 poem « Vert-Vert ou les voyages du perro ...

'', an

opéra comique ''Opéra comique'' (; plural: ''opéras comiques'') is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged from the popular ''opéras comiques en vaudevilles'' of the Théâtre de la foire, Fair Theatres of St Germain and S ...

by him in three acts had its premiere at the Paris

Opéra-Comique The Opéra-Comique () is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular Théâtre de la foire, theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief riva ...

on 10 March. This was followed less than two weeks later by the first performances of his opéra bouffe ''La diva'' at the Bouffes-Parisiens on 22 March. On 31 July ''La princesse de Trébizonde'' was given its premiere at

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

under the direction of the composer. In December of the same year, in the space of five days, the revised three-act version of ''La princesse de Trébizonde'' had its first performance on the 7th at the Bouffes-Parisiens, followed by the world premiere of the three act opéra bouffe '' Les brigands'' on the 10th at the

Théâtre des Variétés The Théâtre des Variétés () is a theatre and "salle de spectacles" at 7–8, boulevard Montmartre, 2nd arrondissement, in Paris. It was declared a monument historique in 1974. History The theatre owed its creation to Mademoiselle Montans ...

in Paris and the premiere of the one act ''La romance de la rose'' took place at the Bouffes-Parisiens the following day.

Roles

Synopsis

Act 1

''A public square'' Cabriolo is the proprietor of a sideshow in a travelling funfair. The attractions in the sideshow include a group of waxworks with the highlight an exceptionally beautiful one of the princess of Trébizonde. Among the members of the travelling entertainers are also Cabriolo's sister Paola, who has an act as a "Femme Sauvage", his daughters Zanetta and Regina, and Trémolini, Regina's long suffering sweetheart. While dusting the waxwork of the princess of Trébizonde, Zanetta accidentally breaks its nose off but in order to save the show she offers to impersonate the statue herself. A young nobleman Prince Raphaël and his tutor Sparadrap come to visit the funfair and instead of paying for admission in money the Prince drops a lottery ticket into the collection box to gain entrance to the show. Prince Raphaël falls madly in love with, as he thinks, the waxwork of the princess. The troupe of entertainers are amazed and overjoyed to receive the news that the lottery ticket has won and the prize is – a castle!

Act 2

''The castle'' Six months have passed, and Cabriolo and his band of entertainers are not finding life in a castle nearly as glamorous as they had imagined it would be. In fact they are all terribly bored and miss their previous lives as travelling players. Out on a hunting trip, Prince Raphaël catches a glimpse of a girl who seems to be his Princess of Trébizonde. He makes a detour into the castle and Zanetta eventually admits that it was her in disguise he saw that day at the circus. Raphaël and Zanetta hatch a plan to stay together. Raphaël's father Prince Casimir and his tutor Sparadrap present themselves at the castle. Raphaël persuades his father to purchase all the waxwork figures of the old sideshow and to make Cabriolo curator of a museum containing them. They all return to Casimir's Palace.

Act 3

''Prince Casimir's palace'' Cabriolo has been elevated to the title of "Baron Cascatella" and he and his family along with the waxwork show are living in Prince Casimir's palace. Trémolini and Regina have re-kindled their romance, and Sparadrap and Paola have also fallen for each other. Raphaël has kept up a pretence of being in love with a waxwork doll because while being in love with a waxwork is harmless enough, his father would never allow him to marry a girl so far below him in rank as Zanetta is. Finding out that Prince Casimir is going out on a night-time hunting expedition, Raphaël plans an extravagant supper for himself and Zanetta. Plans are made to meet later that evening in the castle museum. Coincidentally Trémolini and Regina, and Sparadrap and Paola, also make plans to meet in the same place that very night. After much confusion all three couples are discovered by Cabriolo who has come to visit his beloved waxworks and all sit down to a magnificent supper. A suspicious Prince Casimir has returned early from the hunt and after a certain amount of elaborate pretence by Cabriolo it is revealed that his son is in love with a circus performer, but when it is discovered that he himself had once been married to a lady acrobat – in fact Paola's long-lost sister – he can offer no objection to his son's choice, and the work concludes with festive preparations for a triple marriage.

Reception and performance history

The work was a success with audiences and critics, and was revived at the Bouffes-Parisiens in 1871, 1875 and 1876. The larger

presented the work in 1888 with

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

(Cabriolo), Cooper (Trémolini), Barral (Casimir), Georges (Sparadrap), Mary Albert (Prince Raphaël),

Mily-Meyer Émilie Mily Meyer, stage name 'Mily-Meyer' was a French soprano, born 1852 in Paris, died there in 1927, who for a quarter of a century became a major star of the Parisian operetta stage, and is described by Gänzl as an "impishly boyish yet obv ...

(Regina), Crouzet (Zanetta) and Aubrys (Paola).Noel E & Stoullig E. ''Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique, 14eme edition, 1888.'' G Charpentier et Cie, Paris, 1889, p184. ''La princesse de Trébizonde'' was given productions in London and Brussels, among other cities, in 1870, and Offenbach was in London for the week of the 1870 production at the Gaiety; in his Gaiety Chronicles

John Hollingshead John Hollingshead (9 September 1827 – 9 October 1904) was an English theatrical impresario, journalist and writer during the latter half of the 19th century. After a journalism career, Hollingshead managed the Alhambra Theatre and was later th ...

noted that Offenbach "passed his evenings chiefly at the few music halls which London could boast of". The following year saw the piece produced in New York and Berlin as well as other international centres. It was given in the 1966 Vienna Festival weeks conducted by Walter Goldschmidt, in a

Wolfgang Glück Wolfgang Glück (29 September 1929 – 13 December 2023) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His film 38 – Vienna Before the Fall'' (1987) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 59th Academy Awar ...

production, and at the State Theatre Brunswick in 1975. The Wiener Kammeroper performed it in a production by

Fritz Muliar Fritz Muliar, born as Friedrich Ludwig Stand (December 12, 1919 – May 4, 2009), was an Austrian actor who, due to his huge popularity, is often referred to by his countrymen as ''Volksschauspieler''. Biography Born in Neubau, Vienna as the s ...

in 1985, with Anton Duschek as the tutor Sparadrap, Michael Pinkerton as Trémolini and Sabine Rossert as the Princess. Recent productions include performances in Baden-Baden, where the original version of the piece had its première, in 2015, in

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

, France, in 2016, and Hildesheim Stadttheater in 2019. New Sussex Opera gave five staged performances of the opera in English in November and December 2021, conducted by Toby Purser.

Recordings

A recording in Russian from 1954 with the USSR State Radio Orchestra and Chorus of an hour of music from the opera was issued as two 10 inch LPs and one 12 inch LP by Melodiya. A complete French radio recording from 1966 conducted by

Marcel Cariven Marcel Auguste Antoine Cariven, (18 April 1894, Toulouse – 5 November 1979, Crosne near Paris)Lina Dachary Lina Dachary was a French soprano born in 1922 and died in 1999. She was particularly noted for her prolific radio appearances in operetta.

as Zanetta was issued by Malibran records in 2016. The overture was included in a CD entitled 'Grüss aus Baden-Baden!' with the Baden-Badener Philharmonie conducted by Werner Stiefel (Sterling CDS 1062–2) in 2004, and on a CPO CD with the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt under Howard Griffiths in 2019. In 2023, a complete recording with

Paul Daniel Paul Daniel (born 5 July 1958) is an English conductor. Biography Early life Daniel was born in Birmingham. As a boy, he sang in the choir of Coventry Cathedral, where he received musical training; then studied music at King's College, Cambri ...

conducting the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

was released by

Opera Rara Opera Rara is a London-based opera company and recording label which specialises in recording and performing forgotten operatic repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1970 by bel canto enthusiasts Patric Schmid and Don Whi ...

. It used the Keck edition of the 1869 Paris version, but with eight numbers from the original Baden Baden production as an appendix; the cast included Anne-Catherine Gillet (Zanetta), Virginie Verrez (Prince Raphael), Antoinette Dennefeld (Regina), Katia Ledoux (Paola), Josh Lovell (Prince Casimir), Christophe Mortagne (Tremolini), Christophe Gay (Cabriolo) and Loïc Félix (Sparadrap).Webber, Christopher. Opera on CD - disc of the month: La Princesse de Trébizonde. ''Opera'', December 2023, Vol.74 No.12, p.1533-34.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Princesse de Trébizonde, La French-language operas Operas by Jacques Offenbach 1869 operas Opérettes Operas Literary characters introduced in 1869 Fictional princesses