Plutus (opera)

The story, with an ancient Greek setting, is loosely based on a play by Aristophanes, and portrays the damage that wealth can do to the course of true love.

[2][7] The opera received notices ranging from polite to critical, and it was taken off after eight performances and replaced with a revival of Ambroise Thomas' Le songe d'une nuit d'été.

The waters flow through the local village, whose inhabitants, previously peaceable, become corrupted by the gold and jealousy, feuding and gossip are prevalent.

Chrémyle now considers Myrrha an unequal match for his millionaire son, and the young lovers are disconsolate at his decision to forbid their marriage.

[10] An American reviewer thought that although the piece did not match Lecocq's most celebrated opera, La fille de Madame Angot, in popular appeal, it contained "many charming airs, both gay and plaintive, some of which may possibly receive the honors of the barrel-organ".

[11] A British critic in The Musical World described the piece as a brilliant success,[12] but his confrère in The Era disagreed: "The composer has not been equal to his reputation and his Plutus must be set down as the most unsuccessful and insignificant of his works ... the score is miserably weak as a whole".

[7] In a 2015 study of operetta, Robert Letellier comments that either Lecocq found the antique poem incompatible with his strengths as a composer or he was ill at ease writing for the prestigious Opéra Comique.