Les deux aveugles

Les deux aveugles premiered on the opening night of the Bouffes-Parisiens on 5 July 1855 at the company's first theatre, the tiny Salle Lacaze on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.

[6] The piece was first seen in Berlin at Kroll's on 10 March 1856 and in Vienna at the Carltheater on 19 April, where it played as part of a tour by the French actor Pierre Levassor from the Théâtre du Palais-Royal.

[7] Les deux aveugles was translated into German by Carl Friedrich Wittmann as Zwei arme Blinde and was performed in Vienna at the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai [de] on 26 May 1863[9] and in Dresden on 19 November 1866.

[11] A complete performance of Les deux aveugles (followed by Croquefer, ou Le dernier des paladins) forms part of the 1996 television film Offenbachs Geheimnis, directed by István Szabó,[12] with Laurence Dale as Patachon and Graham Clark as Girafier.

The work was presented by Palazzetto Bru Zane on a double bill with Le compositeur toqué by Hervé at the Théâtre Marigny, Paris, for a series of performances beginning in January 2019.

The music consists of an overture and four short numbers, of which the bolero, a duet which begins "La lune brille, le ciel scintille" ("The moon beams, the sky sparkles"), is probably the standout.