L’amour masqué is a comédie musicale in three acts with music by André Messager

André Messager

André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...

 and a 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 by Sacha Guitry

Sacha Guitry

Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.- Biography :...

, based on the work by Ivan Caryll

Ivan Caryll

Félix Marie Henri Tilkin , better known by his pen name Ivan Caryll, was a Belgian composer of operettas and Edwardian musical comedies in the English language...

. It was originally to be called J'ai deux amants - the title of a song for 'Elle' in Act I. Messager's orchestration, on a smaller-scale than usual, was necessitated by the size of the pit at the Théâtre Edouard VII, and modelled on the pit bands which played for silent films of the time.

Performance history

L’amour masqué was first performed at the Théâtre Edouard VII, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, on 15 February 1923. It was later revived in Lyon, in Paris in 1970 (with Jean Marais and Florence Raynal), and at the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

 in 2004.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 29 September 1928 (Conductor: André Messager)
Lui	spoken role	Sacha Guitry Sacha Guitry Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry was a French stage actor, film actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright of the Boulevard theatre.- Biography :...
Le baron	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	André Urban
L'interprète	baritone	Louis Maurel
Un monsieur	baritone	Henry Garat
Le Maharadjah de Hounk	baritone	Pierre Darmant
Elle	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...	Yvonne Printemps Yvonne Printemps Yvonne Printemps was a French singer and actress.-Biography:Born Yvonne Wigniolle, she made her debut at the age of 12 in a revue at La Cigale in Paris. She was dancing at the Folies Bergère at age 13...
Première servante	soprano	Marthe Ferrare
Deuxième servante	soprano	Marie Dubas Marie Dubas Marie Dubas was a music-hall singer, diseuse and comedienne.Born in Paris, France, Marie Dubas began her career as a stage actress but became famous as a singer. Using the great Yvette Guilbert as her model, Dubas started singing in the small cabarets of Montmartre mixing comedy into her routine...
Une dame	soprano	Reine Bernede
Une dame	soprano	Suzanne Duplessis
Une dame	soprano	Duval

Act I

‘Elle’, charming and beautiful, is about to celebrate her twentieth birthday; she is not in love with her two rich suitors, the Baron Agnot and the Maharadjah, but takes advantage of their generosity. Her heart has been won by a young man – ‘Lui’ - whose portrait she had found at a photographers. The baron, whose wife is unfaithful, would marry her, but Elle puts him off. The Maharadjah asks her to hold a ball.
Finally, Lui comes to retrieve the photograph; as he not that young, he makes her believe that the photo is his son, as whom he will appear, in disguise, at the ball to which Elle invites him.

Act II

The masked ball. Elle’s two servants are dressed identically, disguised as Elle (but with a distinctive item which distinguishes them for their mistress) when they go off with her suitors, the Baron and the Maharadjah.
The eight other guests (four women and four men) also pair off. Lui arrives, masked; Elle will give way to the man whom she takes to be the son of her morning visitor.

Act III

Everyone – including Elle and Lui - appears to have taken advantage of the night. Lui reappears, with his mask, not sure how he may sort out the situation and reveal his trick. He brings a farewell letter from his son, but Elle, in sadness, does not open it. However, a prick of a rose thorn, from the previous night, makes Elle realise the identity of her lover. Despite the age difference, she does not worry about one who seemed so young in the intimacy of the night – she has two lovers in the same person: the father and son.

Recordings

Various excerpts were recorded by Pierre Darmant in 1925 and by Printemps in 1929 and 1941.

L’amour masqué was recorded in 22-23 July 1964 with the Orchestre Lyrique de l'O.R.T.F.

Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française

Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the French national public broadcasting organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" , which had been founded in 1945...

 conducted by Marcel Cariven, with Florence Raynal (Elle), Dominique Tirmont (Lui), Bernard Plantey (L'Interprète) and Aimé Doniat (Le Baron). A further recording was made with Raynal and Jean Marais

Jean Marais

-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....

.