About the work
Jean Anouilh wrote this comedy in five tableaux in 1940; it premiered that same year at the Théâtre de la Michodière in Paris, directed by André Barsacq and starring Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay, with a German-language premiere following in Frankfurt in 1950. The play belongs to Anouilh's lighter 'Pièces roses'.
Plot
A prince cannot let go of the memory of the opera singer Léocadia Gardi, with whom he shared only three days before her death. His aunt, the Duchess, has those three days painstakingly re-enacted, hiring the milliner Amanda, who resembles the dead woman, to lure him back to life. It is his genuine feeling for Amanda, not the re-enactment, that finally frees him.
Cultural significance
Francis Poulenc wrote the song 'Les Chemins de l'amour' specifically for the premiere; it remains a staple of the concert repertoire. Adapted into English as 'Time Remembered', the play reached Broadway and the West End in the 1950s.