About the work
Rose et Colas is a one-act opéra comique by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny to a libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine. It was premiered on 8 March 1764 by the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. As a 'comédie mêlée d'ariettes', it combines spoken dialogue with interspersed songs (ariettes), the form typical of the young opéra comique genre.
Plot
The young farmers Rose and Colas are in love and want to marry, but their fathers — though friends themselves — secretly stand in the way of the match, each unwilling to lose his own child's labour on the farm. The resolute Mère Bobi sees through their scheme and finally brings both fathers to consent to the wedding.
Cultural significance
The piece became one of the great stage successes of its era: by 1790 it had received 193 performances in Paris alone, was translated into numerous languages and staged in cities including Vienna, London, Stockholm and Moscow. Voltaire had it performed at Ferney in 1767, and as late as 1830 Honoré de Balzac has a character hum a tune from it in his story 'Une double famille'.