Vaucochard et fils Ier is an unfinished opérette by Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier

Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...

 of which only some numbers survive. 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 Paul Verlaine

Paul Verlaine

Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...

.

Background

In the early 1860s Chabrier was a close friend of Verlaine and dined at the Verlaine's house, rue Lecluze every Saturday from 1860-1863. With Verlaine and Chabrier, the friends who met together there included Albert Mérat, Adolphe Racot, François Coppée

François Coppée

François Edouard Joachim Coppée was a French poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born in Paris to a civil servant. After attending the Lycée Saint-Louis he became a clerk in the ministry of war, and won public favour as a poet of the Parnassian school. His first printed verses date from 1864...

, Louis-Xavier de Ricard

Louis-Xavier de Ricard

Louis-Xavier de Ricard was a French poet, author and journalist of the 19th century. He was founder and editor of La Revue du progrès which was the first to publish a poem by Paul Verlaine in August 1863...

 and Édouard Lepelletier.

Although Delage has dated Chabrier’s work on the score of Vaucochard et fils Ier to around 1864, Verlaine continued to mention work for the project for several years after.
Only four complete numbers exist from this early comic piece where the cowardly but bawdy title role is a satire of Napoleon III.

In this, one of the Chabrier's earliest works, Poulenc

Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...

 discerned elements of the composer's true style in the 'Chanson de l'homme armé', while Delage notes two future favourite rhythms of the composer – the waltz in the duo for Aglaé and Médéric and the bourrée

Bourrée

The bourrée is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century. It is danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte. The main difference between the two is the anacrusis, or upbeat; a bourrée starts on the last beat of a bar, creating a...

 in the trio finale.

Performance history

The surviving numbers from Vaucochard et fils Ier were first performed on 22 April 1941 at the Salle du Conservatoire, Paris with Germaine Cernay

Germaine Cernay

Germaine Cernay, born Germaine Pointu Le Havre 28 April 1900, died Paris, 1943 was a French alto who was active both in the opera house and on the concert platform.-Life and career:...

, Lucienne Trajin, Paul Derenne

Paul Derenne

Paul Derenne was a French tenor whose eclectic repertoire allowed him a successful career on stage and on the concert platform.-Life and career:...

 and Roger Bourdin

Roger Bourdin

Roger Bourdin was a French baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory. His career was largely based in France.- Life and career :...

, conducted by Roger Désormière

Roger Désormière

Roger Désormière was a French conductor.Désormière was born in Vichy in 1898. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where his professors included Philippe Gaubert , Xavier Leroux and Charles Koechlin , and Vincent d'Indy...

. A recording of the four numbers was made in Strasbourg in 1992, conducted by Roger Delage.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 22 April 1941
Douyoudou	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...	Germaine Cernay
Aglaé	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...	Lucienne Trajin
Médéric	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...	Roger Bourdin
Vaucochard	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...	Paul Derenne