Belle Lurette is a three-act opéra comique with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Ernest Blum, Edouard Blau and Raoul Toché. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Renaissance, Paris, on 30 October 1880. The composer died before the orchestration of the score was finished, and Léo Delibes completed it.
The opera depicts the romantic affairs of a beautiful Parisian laundress, known as "Belle Lurette", and the entanglements of those around her.
Background
Offenbach's career had been severely disrupted by the downfall in 1870 of the Second Empire, with which he had been closely linked. By the end of the decade he had substantially restored his earlier status as a composer of popular comic operas. His last completed such work, La fille du tambour-major (1879), ran for more than 240 performances, at a time when a run of 100 performances was considered a success.
In the early 1870s Offenbach had been temporarily eclipsed by a younger rival, Charles Lecocq, who was associated with the Théâtre de la Renaissance, but by the end of the decade Lecocq's works began to find less favour among the public, and in 1880 Offenbach was delighted to accept an invitation from Victor Koning, director of the Renaissance, to write a piece for the theatre. He withdrew from Paris to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to work on the new piece and on his ambitious opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He returned to Paris in September to supervise early rehearsals of the latter at the Opéra-Comique. His already precarious health took a turn for the worse and he died in his sleep on 5 October. Offenbach's friend and former protégé Léo Delibes undertook the remaining orchestration of the score.
The work opened at the Renaissance on 30 November 1880 and ran for 82 performances, closing on 11 January 1881.
Original cast
Malicorne – Alfred Jolly
Campistrel – Eugène Vauthier
Le duc de Marly – M. Cooper
Merluchet – M. Lary
Cigogne – M. Jannin
Belhomme – M. Alexandre
La Boisene – M. William
Givry – M. Liberg
Lenoncourt – M. Deberg
Cadignan – M. Duchosal
Baptiste – M. Perrenot
Jasmin – M. Robillot
Lafleur – M. Mercier
Belle Lurette – Jane Hading
Marceline – Mily-Meyer
Friquette – Mlle Norette
Clorinde – Lydie Borel
Toinette – Mlle Panseron
Manon – Mlle Rolla
Rose – Mlle Davenay
Madelon – Mlle Ducouret
Bérénice – Mlle Doriani
Nicole – Mlle Roger
Jacqueline – Mlle Jouvenceau
Marion – Mlle Bérette
A note in the published vocal score indicates that the rôle of the Duke of Marly may be played by a woman en travesti, as was done when the piece was first seen in Brussels, a few weeks after the Paris premiere.