About the work
Comédie lyrique in four acts by André Messager, to a libretto by Robert de Flers and Gaston Arman de Caillavet after Alfred de Musset's 1835 play Le Chandelier. It premiered on 5 June 1907 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, marking Messager's farewell as the house's longtime music director.
Plot
The notary's wife Jacqueline uses the young, infatuated clerk Fortunio as a decoy to distract her husband from her real lover, Captain Clavaroche. Fortunio's feelings for her are genuine, however, and by the end Jacqueline recognises and returns his sincere love.
Cultural significance
Critics and audiences alike acclaimed the premiere; critic Arthur Pougin praised the score as clear, unpretentious and 'thoroughly French'. The work remained a fixture of the Opéra-Comique repertoire well into the mid-20th century.