La Créole
La Créole is an opéra comique in three acts of 1875 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was by Albert Millaud, with additional material by Henri Meilhac. It was one of three full-length stage works written almost simultaneously that year, the others being La Boulangère a des écus and Le Voyage dans la lune.
La Créole was premiered at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Salle Choiseul in Paris. The costumes were designed by Alfred Grévin. Although it ran for over sixty performances, it was rather coolly received due to its poor plot, and was not revived.
The work was also performed in German in Vienna and Berlin in 1876 (as Die Creolin), in Polish in Lemberg the same year, in London and Brussels in 1877, and in Spanish in Mexico in 1885. Adapted as The Commodore as a vehicle for Violet Cameron, the piece was seen in London and New York in 1886.
A revival at the Théâtre Marigny starring Josephine Baker in the title role was produced on 17 December 1934, with the libretto revamped by Albert Willemetz and some changes to the music.
More recently La Créole was revived from 13-18 January 2009 at the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire, and from November 2013 to January 2014 at the Espace Pierre Cardin by the not-for-profit association Tréteaux Lyriques.
Although no complete recording is available, excerpts have appeared on the anthologies 'Offenbach au menu' and 'Entre Nous'.
Just about to set off on a new voyage, the sea-captain Adhémar de Feuilles-Mortes plans to arrange the marriage of his ward Antoinette to his nephew René. Unfortunately Antoinette is not in love with René; her love is René’s friend the young lawyer Frontignac. Equally, René, a musketeer travelling between one exploit and the next, is desperate to see again a Creole girl whom he met while he was on Guadeloupe. But in spite of this his uncle Adhémar insists. However the admiral summons the commander to sea, and no sooner is he out of port and sight – presumably for a couple of years – than Antoinette, in collusion with René, marries her sweetheart Frontignac.
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