Croquefer, ou Le dernier des paladins

Croquefer, ou Le dernier des paladins is a one-act opéra bouffe by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Adolphe Jaime and Étienne Tréfeu, first performed in 1857 in Paris.

The successful premiere was at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Rue Monsigny, Paris, on 12 February 1857, subsequently revived, and productions followed in Vienna (as Ritter Eisenfrass) in 1864 and London (as The Last of the Paladins) in 1868.

[2] The work was first performed in England on 1 July 1857 at St James's Theatre during Offenbach's second visit to London, arranged by his father-in-law John Mitchell, when the composer brought the Bouffes company including orchestra and offered 19 different pieces, 11 by him.

[3] The authors had defied the theatrical regulation forbidding more than four characters in a stage piece at the Bouffes Parisiens theatre by adding a fifth who had no tongue and could therefore only 'sing' grunts and barks in the 'quintet'.

[5] A complete performance of Croquefer forms part of the 1996 television film Offenbachs Geheimnis, directed by István Szabó, with Graham Clark and Laurence Dale among the cast.