Fleur-de-Thé

Fleur-de-Thé (French pronunciation: [flœʁ də te], Teaflower) is a three-act opéra bouffe with music by Charles Lecocq and words by Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot.

Lecocq enjoyed an early success in 1856, when he and Georges Bizet shared the first prize in a competition for composers of comic opera, organised by Jacques Offenbach.

Lacking the connections to secure commissions from Parisian theatres, Lecocq spent the next decade in obscurity and routine work as a teacher, accompanist and répétiteur.

His first two-act work, L'amour et son carquois, presented in January 1868, was a modest success, and Busnach commissioned a three-act piece, teaming Lecocq with the established duo of librettists, Alfred Duru and Henri Chivot.

[2] The work nearly failed to open: the chorus walked out after the dress rehearsal because they had not been paid, but Busnach managed to find the necessary money.

She takes refuge in the nearest building, which is a cantine française – a bar for sailors and locals – run by Pinsonnet and his wife Césarine.

Césarine uses champagne as a weapon, plying Tien-Tien with Veuve Clicquot, and the Pinsonnets are rescued by sailors from the French ship at the quayside and carried off to safety.

After its initial run, which lasted for the rest of the season, the piece was revived in September 1869, transferring to the larger Théâtre des Variétés.

[4] In 1871 a French company took the opera to London, where it played at the Lyceum Theatre to capacity audiences who included several members of the British royal family.

Le Ménestrel found the libretto very funny and observed that Lecocq's music showed a composer of true gaiety of temperament.