Giroflé Girofla is an opéra bouffe

Opéra bouffe

Opéra bouffe is a genre of late 19th-century French operetta, closely associated with Jacques Offenbach, who produced many of them at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens that gave its name to the form....

 in three acts of 1874 with music by Charles Lecocq. The French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 libretto was by Albert Vanloo

Albert Vanloo

Albert Vanloo was a Belgian librettist and playwright.Vanloo lived in Paris as a child and was attracted to the theatre. As a young student he began writing plays and opéra comique libretti, notably with Eugène Leterrier who remained his main collaborator until the latter's death in 1884...

 and Eugène Leterrier

Eugène Leterrier

Eugène Leterrier was a French librettist.Leterrier worked at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris but then turned to the theatre. He mainly collaborated in writing libretti with Albert Vanloo. Their working relationship was productive and stress-free...

.

Performance history

The opera was first presented at the Théâtre des Fantaisies Parisiennes, Brussels, on 21 March 1874. It opened at the Théâtre de la Renaissance

Théâtre de la Renaissance

The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on the Rue Méhul in the 2nd arrondissement.The current...

, Paris, on 11 November 1874 with Jeanne Granier

Jeanne Granier

Jeanne Granier was a French soprano, born 31 March 1852 in Paris, and died there on 18 or 19 December 1939.Granier was a pupil of Barthe-Banderali, studying both opéra-comique and Italian music....

 in the title role and Jolly returning to his creator's role from Brussels. The first production at the Renaissance ran for over 200 performances up to the following October.
The Brussels company took Giroflé-Girofla to London where it had its first performance on 6 June 1874; an English version was premiered in London on 3 October 1874.

Its popularity soon spread to Berlin in 1874, then Sydney, Buenos Aires, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and New York in 1875.

Traubner states that Giroflé-Girofla "marked a sudden return to pure nonsense... Lecocq’s fertile invention (particularly in the ensembles) was formidable".

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 21 March 1874 (Conductor: )
Giroflé / Girofla	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Pauline Luigini
Aurore	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Mme Delorme
Paquita	soprano	Marie Blanche
Marasquin	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Mario Widmer
Boléro d'Alcaras	baritone	Alfred Jolly
Mourzouk	baritone	Paul Giret
Pirate chief	bass	Leroy
Pedro	mezzo-soprano	J d’Alby
Godfather		Durieu
Notary		Achille
Tax collector		Ernotte
Dancer		Castelain
Best man		Coclers
Distant cousins		Laurent, Deschamps Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin was a French operatic contralto who had a prolific career in France from 1879-1905. She possessed a rich-toned and flexible voice that had a wide vocal range... , Anna, Schmidt, Thérèse, Piton, Petronille
Pirates, Moorish soldiers, sailors, men and women, friends of Giroflé and Girofla, Moorish women

Act 1

Don Boléro, governor of the province, but governed by his domineering wife Aurore, has two identical twin daughters, Giroflé and Girofla (played by the same singer); so as to distinguish the pair, they are dressed respectively in blue and pink. Don Boléro is in debt to the Marasquin Bank in Cadiz, and therefore unable to raise an army against the marauding moor Mourzouk, attacking from Grenada.
Aurore has arranged advantageous weddings for the twins; Giroflé to the son of Marasquin and Girofla to the bachelor pirate, hoping thus to solve both the pressing problems.

Preparations for the weddings are taking place as the curtain rises, with the bridesmaids in the colours of each bride, while the two daughters ask their mother for marital guidance.
The apprentice chef warns the girls not to stray too far or the pirates who roam the coastline will seize them both and take them off to a harem.
The son of Marasquin, and turns out to be nice young man; the moor however pleads a toothache and defers his appearance. But the marriage can’t be postponed, and it is love at first sight for Giroflé, who hurries off with her new fiancé.
Now a gang of pirates creep on and Girofla is seized. Pedro goes to protect her but they are bundled onto a ship bound for Constantinople. Boléro and Aurore are appalled, and worried about the reaction of the moor. Mourzouk arrives and demands his immediate wedding. Giroflé is told that she must wed a second time, and dons a pink ribbon...

Act 2

Giroflé is locked in her room while Aurore has to bluff the two husbands – they must wait until midnight to see her. Pedro has escaped from the pirates, and enters to say that Boléro's admiral Matamoros has them at bay, but refuses to finish them off until he gets paid. Boléro and Aurore exit to rob the treasury. Meanwhile, Giroflé joins her cousins to finish off the wedding buffet and they all run off, so that when her parents return they believe that pirates have taken her too. Midnight sounds and there is still no sign of Girofla.

Act 3

Marsasquin and Giroflé appear at breakfast after a nice wedding night. Boléro and Aurore reveal the sorry tale to Marasquin and that to save them all from the wrath of Mourzouk, he must allow Giroflé to also be Girofla. Mourzouk despite his fury is fobbed off again. But the moor is suspicious and swiftly returns to catch out the wily parents and insists on behaving as the rightful husband to Giroflé. As arguments rage, Pasquita brings news that the pirates are finally defeated and Girofla returns – so the weddings can recommence, to general rejoicing.

Influences

Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....

 saw the opera and fondly recalled it in his travel book Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature.-Background:...

(1879). In reference to a song from the opera he wrote:

"the words of a French song came back into my memory, telling of the best of our mixed existence:

‘Que t’as de belles filles,

Giroflé!

Girofla!

Que t’as de belles filles,

L’Amour les comptera!’

And I blessed God that I was free to wander, free to hope, and free to love."