About the work
Fantasio is a three-act opéra comique by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Paul de Musset and Charles Nuitter after Alfred de Musset's comedy of the same name. It premiered on 18 January 1872 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
Plot
The penniless student Fantasio disguises himself as the court jester to save the Princess of Bavaria from an unwanted political marriage to the Prince of Mantua. His pranks throw the wedding celebrations into disarray but also win him the princess's heart, and the two flee together at the end.
Cultural significance
In the wake of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Offenbach expanded the story's pacifist passages; the war-weary Paris audience responded coolly, and the work closed after only ten performances. Much of the orchestral material was destroyed in an 1887 fire, and the opera became playable again only through later critical reconstructions.