Le violoneux

Le violoneux is a one-act operetta (« légende bretonne » - Breton legend) by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Eugène Mestépès and Émile Chevalet, first performed in 1855.

[1] The triumphant premiere was at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in the Champs-Elysées, Paris, on 31 August 1855, making a star of Schneider in her first role for Offenbach, to whom she had been introduced by Berthelier (with whom she was having an affair).

It was played on tour for five months in 1878 by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a curtain raiser to The Sorcerer by Gilbert and Sullivan.

[5] The Opéra-Comique in Paris staged the work in 1901 with Jeanne Tiphaine as Reinette, Lucien Fugère as Père Mathieu and Ernest Carbonne as Pierre.

Among the broken pieces, it reveals its mystery: a letter, from Reinette’s father stating that Mathieu is the rightful owner of the castle of Kerdrel.