Les bavards

Les bavards (English: The Chatterboxes) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter based on "Los dos habladores", a story by Miguel de Cervantes.

[2] It became Die Schwätzerin von Saragossa for Vienna in November of that year,[1] and was produced in its final two-act form at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris (Salle Choiseul) on 20 February 1863, with Delphine Ugalde as Roland, Thompson as Inès, Tostée as Béatrix and Étienne Pradeau as Sarmiento, conducted by Offenbach.

[3] It entered the repertoire of the Paris Opéra Comique on 3 May 1924 conducted by Maurice Frigara, produced by Albert Carré, with Germaine Gallois as Roland and Marguerite Roger as Béatrix.

He has fallen in love with Inès, the niece of Sarmiento, a wealthy man kept busy counting his money, who is wearied by his talkative wife Béatrix.

He begins a long recitation of his woes and in the ensuing duet agrees to get Béatrix to stay quiet (hoping also to be in close proximity to his beloved Inès).