François les bas-bleus

François les bas-bleus is an opéra comique in three acts of 1883, with a French libretto by Ernest Dubreuil, Eugène Humbert, Paul Burani, and music by Firmin Bernicat, completed by André Messager.

[1] Bernicat had worked for some time in café-concert; he began work setting a libretto based on an old vaudeville Les beignets à la cour, which became an opéra-comique in three acts Les beignets du roi and was mounted at the Théâtre des Fantaisies-Parisiennes in Brussels in February 1882, with some success.

From 17 December 1887 it was revived at the Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs for 50 performances, with Jane Pierny as Fanchon, Jacquin as François, Bartel as Pontcornet and Alice Berthier as the comtesse de la Savonnière.

The marriage of the two would be quite straightforward, were it not that Fanchon decides to sing to François, a childhood birthday song, which instantly identifies her to the passing comtesse de la Savonnière.

In the second, a love duet "Espérance en heureux jours" was enthusiastically received, while in the third Act the romance "A toi j'avais donné ma vie" was applauded.