Le bourgeois de Calais

Le bourgeois de Calais is an opéra comique in three acts of 1887, with music by André Messager and a French libretto by Ernest Dubreuil, Paul Burani.

Le bourgeois de Calais has parallels with the contemporary French feelings towards loss of Alsace and Lorraine.

By disguising himself in the clothes of the sailor André (fiancé of Marthe, daughter of Aubriet, an alderman of Calais), de Guise can enter the square and bring in his troops right under the nose of the English governor Lord Tréfort.

In a subplot, the Comtesse believes – after a prophecy in Nostradamus - she may become the Duchess de Guise, while André thinks he has been duped by the Duke.

Of Messager's score, contemporary writers particularly noted the quartet "Vous avez dans mon ame", the military finale of the first act, the introduction to the second, the scene of the swearing of allegiance, the couplets "C’est une merveilleuse idée", the third act romance "Je vais errant a l’aventure" and the comic song "L'Anglais, premier people du monde".