Le pauvre matelot (The Poor Sailor) is a three-act opera (described as a 'complainte') composed by Darius Milhaud with libretto by Jean Cocteau.

Although Cocteau claimed that the story was inspired by a news item in a paper, the scenario can be found in a 17th-century Franco-Canadian song 'Le Funeste Retour', and the tragedy Der vierundzwanzigste Februar by Werner of 1808.

[1] The work was a successful part of a triple bill at La Monnaie in Brussels at the end of 1927 conducted by Corneil de Thoran, preceded by the premiere of Antigone by Honegger, and followed by Shéhérazade.

[3] In 1934 an amended orchestrated version was produced in Geneva under Scherchen in tandem with L'Histoire du Soldat[1] then in Vienna, and the work was revived at the Opéra-Comique the following year.

[1] The United States premiere of the opera, produced by the Curtis Institute of Music, took place on 1 April 1937 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in a production directed by Austrian composer, librettist, and stage director Ernst Lert and using set and costume designs by Tony Award winning designer Donald Oenslager.

The opera was presented in a double bill with the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Amelia Goes to the Ball.

Both operas were conducted by Fritz Reiner with Sylvan Levin serving as chorus master and a young Boris Goldovsky working as Assistant Conductor.

The wife keeps a bar where most of the action takes place, and the opera opens with her dancing with the friend, who owns a wineshop across the street.

Upon knocking at the friend's door, the sailor is first turned away as a drunkard, but his mentioning of having a wife across the street makes his identity known.

The wife remains silent on the visitor, but as she closes the bar for the night, does see a similarity in the appearance of the sailor to her husband.