Passionnément 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 Maurice Hennequin and lyrics by Albert Willemetz

Albert Willemetz

Albert Willemetz was a French librettist.Albert Willemetz was a prolific lyricist. He invented a new type of musical, with a humorous and "sexy" style...

. The title comes from the refrain of a waltz-song in the second act.

Performance history

Passionnément was first performed at the Théâtre Michodière, 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 16 January 1926. In recent years performances have taken place in Marseille and Rennes (2003) and Aubagne (2009).

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 29 September 1928 (Conductor: André Messager)
William Stevenson	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...	René Koval
Robert Perceval	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...	Géo Bury
Captain Harris	baritone	Lucien Baroux Lucien Baroux Lucien Baroux was a French actor. He began his career working in the theatre, moving on to a long career in films from the 1930s....
Le Barrois	baritone	Charles Lorrain
John		Julien Carette
Ketty	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...	Jeanne Saint Bonnet
Julia	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...	Denise Grey Denise Grey Denise Grey was a French actress.- Selected filmography :* Devil in the Flesh * The Sheep Has Five Legs * Bombs on Monte Carlo * La boum * A Fine Romance...
Hélène	mezzo-soprano	Renée Duler

Act I

On board Stevenson’s yacht Arabella

Stevenson, a tough American businessman arrives at Trouville

Trouville

Trouville is the name or part of the name of several communes of Normandy, France:* Trouville, in the Seine-Maritime department* Trouville-sur-Mer, in the Calvados department, arguably the most famous of these communes, and commonly referred to as Trouville* Trouville-la-Haule, in the Eure department...

 with his beautiful wife Ketty, her young Canadian maid Julia and the Captain Harris. He is there to buy land in Colorado – at a knock-down price - which a young Frenchman Robert Perceval has inherited, and who doesn’t realize that the oil may be found on the land. Distrustful of Frenchmen, Stevenson makes his wife Ketty (a former music-hall star) to show herself in public as an old woman, with white hair and tinted glasses; he forces her to swear this on the Bible.
Robert comes on board, along with his friend Le Barrois and his wife Hélène, Robert’s jealous mistress, who is reassured by the sight of an old woman in glasses.
Later, Ketty, without her disguise, meets Robert, and pretends to be the niece (Marguerite) of the brutish and teetotal Stevenson; they begin to fall in love.

Act II

Trouville, in an elegant salon of the Villa des Roses

The yacht has had to be put into dry dock for repair. The visitors stay meanwhile in the Villa. Ketty confides in Julia her love for Robert. Stevenson is anxious to get the contract signed as soon as possible. Just as Robert is about to do so, he receives a note from ‘Marguerite’ warning him of underhand goings-on. So Robert stops signing, and Stevenson angrily goes off to the Casino. Robert wonders if Marguerite loves him and the act closes with them in each others’ arms.

Act III

The next day

Julia hopes that just as her mistress has been blessed in love, so she will be. Stevenson returns home from the casino where he had discovered the delights of champagne. The three bottles have also made him become kind, considerate – and aware of the beauty of Julia… The two lovers take advantage of this change, and get Stevenson to reveal the riches of the Colorado terrain, and to divorce Ketty so that she and Robert can get married.

Recordings

Various excerpts were recorded in 1932 including some by members of the original cast. The same year saw a film version produced by René Guissart.

Passionnément was recorded in 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 J-P Kreder, with Lina Dachary, Christiane Arbell, Claudine Collart, Aimé Doniat, Dominique Tirmont, Gérard Friedmann, Hiéronimus and René Lénoty.