''Le violoneux'' is a one-act

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

(« légende bretonne » -

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally ** Breton people ** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Ga ...

legend) by

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

to a French

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

by Eugène Mestépès and

Émile Chevalet Émile Chevalet (1 November 1813 – 14 January 1894) was a 19th-century French man of letters, journalist, historian and librettist. Biography While he was a notary's clerk in the province, Chevalet published a novel in 1832: ''Amélie ou la ...

, first performed in 1855.

Performance history

The triumphant premiere was at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in the Champs-Elysées,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, on 31 August 1855, making a star of Schneider in her first role for Offenbach, to whom she had been introduced by Berthelier (with whom she was having an affair). ''Le violoneux'' was part of a command performance given in April 1860 for the Emperor at the Théâtre-Italien, along with ''

Orphée aux enfers ''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''Orpheus in Hell'' are English names for (), a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act "opéra bouffon" at the Théât ...

'' and ''Le musicien de l’avenir''. Offenbach went to Vienna in 1861 to conduct performances of ''Le mariage aux lanternes'' and ''Le violoneux'' at the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai.

H. B. Farnie Henry Brougham Farnie (8 April 1836 – 21 September 1889), often called H. B. Farnie, was a British librettist and adapter of French operettas and an author. Some of his English-language versions of operettas became record-setting hits on the ...

adapted the opera into English as ''Breaking the Spell'', which premiered at the

Lyceum Theatre, London The Lyceum Theatre ( ) is a West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand in central London. It has a seating capacity of 2,100. The origins of the theatre date to 1765. Managed by Samuel Arnold ...

on 2 May 1870 and was revived in London in 1891 and 1904. It was played on tour for five months in 1878 by the

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Th ...

as a

curtain raiser A curtain raiser is a short performance, stage act, show, actor or performer that opens a show for the main attraction. The term is derived from the act of raising the stage curtain. The first person on stage has "raised the curtain". The fashio ...

to ''

The Sorcerer ''The Sorcerer'' is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of ''The Sorcerer'' is based on a Christmas story, ''An Elixir of Lo ...

'' by

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

. The Opéra-Comique in Paris staged the work in 1901 with Jeanne Tiphaine as Reinette,

Lucien Fugère Lucien Fugère (22 July 1848, Paris – 15 January 1935, Paris) was a French baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory and Mozart roles. He enjoyed an exceptionally long career, singing into his 80s. Life and career Fugère's f ...

as Père Mathieu and

Ernest Carbonne Raymond Jean-Baptiste Ernest Carbonne (30 July 1860 in Toulouse – 1924) was a French tenor and stage director who had a long association with the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Life and career Carbonne studied at the , gaining first prizes in ...

as Pierre.Wolff, Stéphane. ''Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique 1900–1950.'' André Bonne, Paris, 1953.

Roles

Synopsis

The scene is a village square in Brittany. Reinette asks Père Mathieu to help Pierre who is terrified as he has been conscripted in the army and can only get out of it if he pays 2,000 francs. His uncle has refused to help him with the money and sent him packing. Pierre is not happy when his sweetheart Reinette suggests approaching Mathieu, the village fiddler for he believes him to be a magician. Père Mathieu inherited the violin from his father along with the mysterious command to break the instrument in pieces if ever Mathieu is in an emergency, which he has yet to do. When Mathieu plays a song he bewitches Pierre; who when it is over runs off. Alone with Mathieu, Rienette threatens to run after Pierre and become a cantinière. Alone, Reinette embraces the old fiddle – the livelihood of her guardian. Pierre catches her doing this and angrily smashes the instrument. Among the broken pieces, it reveals its mystery: a letter, from Reinette’s father stating that Mathieu is the rightful owner of the castle of Kerdrel. Matthieu offers the money for Pierre to avoid conscription and marry Reinette and tears up the letter. Pierre offers to repair the violin, and Mathieu says he will remain a poor fiddler.French libretto
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Musical numbers

* Overture * Couplets « Conscrit! Conscrit! » * Couplets et Duo « J’sais bien que c’n’est pas l’usage » * Ronde « Le violoneux du village » * Duo « Le clairon sonne à la parade » * Duo « Qué qu’ je vois !… » * Couplets « Je t’apportais ta délivrance » * Melodrame et Final « Tout petit dans ce village »

References

;Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Violoneux Operas by Jacques Offenbach French-language operas Operas One-act operas 1855 operas Operas set in France