La cigale et la fourmi
After considerable success at the box-office with the opéra comique La mascotte (1880), Audran and his usual librettists, Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru, had written five shows in a row that failed to rival it.
Of these, Gillette de Narbonne (1882) and Le grand mogol (1884) both ran for more than 100 performances – regarded as the criterion of reasonable success in Parisian theatres at the time[3] – but a succès fou had proved elusive.
[4] Audran tried working with other collaborators – Maurice Ordonneau (Serment d'amour, 1886) and H. B. Farnie (Indiana, 1886) – without conspicuous success, and returned to Chivot and Duru when commissioned to provide a piece for the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris.
[5][6] The biggest draw at the Gaîté was its leading lady, Jeanne Granier, for whom Audran and his partners wrote the role of Thérèse, the extravagant, feckless heroine.
The mezzo-soprano lead, Charlotte, the thoughtful "ant", was sung by Louise Thuillier-Leloir [fr], for whom the collaborators had written before, in Le grand mogol (1884) and Pervenche (1885).
Two weeks after Thérèse's arrival in Bruges there is a grand masked ball at the Faisan d'Or, an event much favoured by the local nobility for its scope for amorous intrigue.
The duke has been banished by his Prince, shocked at the scandal in the ducal family, and Frantz, like Vincent, has been searching for Thérèse, having realised that his pretended love for her has become a compelling reality.
When Thérèse wakes she finds herself in bed in the room that she occupied as a young girl, and the horror of the dream is soothed away by the care of her loving family.
A production opened at the Lyric Theatre, London, on 9 October 1890, under the title La Cigale, in a version by F. C. Burnand and Gilbert à Beckett, starring Geraldine Ulmar, Eric Lewis and Lionel Brough.
[13] The opera was first produced in Australia, also in the Burnand and à Beckett adaptation, at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on 13 February 1892,[14] and was given in New Zealand in 1895 by the Williamson and Musgrove company, starring Nellie Stewart.
[10] The annual review of Parisian productions Les Annales du théâtre et de la musique also considered the libretto puerile, and thought Audran had done well to rescue it with a score full of happy discoveries and pleasing melodies.
Burnand's adaptation of the libretto was judged "pretty, refined, innocent and sympathetic", and Audran's score "the best comic opera music the composer has written".
[18] The critic of The Sydney Morning Herald called the piece "a genuine comic opera, characterised by the vivacity and dainty grace of the music and the splendour of its mise-en-scène".
[19] The earliest recording of music from the opera was issued on wax cylinder: Marguerite Revel sings the gavotte "Ma mère j'entends le violin".
