About the work
Der arme Matrose (Le pauvre matelot) is a one-act opera by Darius Milhaud to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, which the composer called a 'complainte', or lament. It premiered on 16 December 1927 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Cocteau claimed the story came from a newspaper item, though it in fact goes back to an older French-Canadian song.
Plot
A woman waits fifteen years for her husband to return. When he finally comes back, unrecognisable and in rags, and tells her of a valuable pearl necklace, she kills him in his sleep to secure what she believes will be a comfortable future for herself and her father – only afterwards realising whom she has killed.
Cultural significance
At barely half an hour, this chamber opera, with its spare, unsentimental musical language, is considered one of the most striking results of Milhaud's collaboration with Cocteau, and it is still regularly staged at German-speaking houses today, usually paired with other short operas on a double bill.