FULL Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui (Offenbach) TV-Operetta Paris 1963 André Balbon, Michel Sénéchal, Toinou Coste, Gérard Chapuis

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui  
• Composer: Offenbach Jacques  
• Libretto: Duc Charles de Morny (under the pseudonym "M. de St Rémy")    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: TV-Studio Paris, France  
• Recorded: 1963
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: André Balbon, Michel Sénéchal, Toinou Coste, Gérard Chapuis, Roger Peyrardi, Jacques Josselin, Line Clément, Mathilde Casadesus, Renée Dennsy, Huguette Dathane, Jean Lafitte
• Conductor: Richard Blareau, Jacques Lebel  
• Orchestra: Orchestre lyrique de la RTF  
• Choreographer: Myriam Sagal  
• Stage Director: Paul Maquaire  
• Stage Designer: Jean Marie Thomen  
• Costume Designer: Marie Thérèse Respens  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Radiodiffusion Télévision Française  
• Date Published: 1963  
• Format: Broadcast
• Quality Video: 2 Audio:3
• Subtitles: nosubs  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le… (Mr. Cauliflower will be at home on… ) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, in one act by Jacques Offenbach and the Duc de Morny (under the pseudonym “M. de St Rémy”). The French libretto is also credited to Morny, though Ludovic Halévy, Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, and Morny’s secretary Ernest L’Épine probably contributed to the text as well.

The plot provided many opportunities for Offenbach to indulge in his lighthearted musical parodies of well-known opera melodies and formulas, especially a grand trio in which Italian belcanto is imitated and a comic solo for the manservant. Also, the young lovers secretly communicate using musical quotes.

Synopsis

Place: Paris Time: January 24, 1833
The newly-rich but culturally ignorant M. Choufleuri invites the upper crust of Paris to a private party and “musical soiree” (at his bourgeois drawing-room, furnished in vulgar taste) by celebrated real life Italian opera singers: soprano Henriette Sontag, tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, and baritone Antonio Tamburini. All three become indisposed at the last minute.

In the meantime, Choufleuri’s daughter, Ernestine, has been secretly seeing a young bassoonist, composer and singer, Chrysodule Babylas. When she asked her father to invite the young man to the soiree, Choufleuri had refused, saying that a poor musician is not a worthy suitor for her. Now, Ernestine saves the day by impersonating Sontag and insisting that Babylas impersonate Rubini, and that Choufleuri himself masquerade as Tamburini (after all, the young couple explain, baritones don’t need to speak much, they just oom-pah-pah – but Choufleuri should try to stay on key).

Despite Choufleuri’s lazy and incompetent Flemish servant, Petermann, the deception works – the guests are impressed by the great “Italian” singers (who all speak in Italian accents and sing in pig-Italian), and Choufleuri rewards Babylas with his daughter’s hand in marriage (especially since Babylas has demanded this, plus 50,000 Francs dowry, in order to keep quiet about the fraud).

Quoted from Wikipedia

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