La jolie parfumeuse

La jolie parfumeuse is an opéra comique in three acts of 1873 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was by Hector Crémieux and Ernest Blum.

The opera was premiered at the Théâtre de la Renaissance, Paris on 29 November 1873, where it ran for 200 performances, marking Offenbach’s first major success after the fall of the Empire. The piece, which owes something to the 1850 opéra comique Les Porcherons by Sauvage and Grisar, enjoys a “farcical libretto of sexual quiproquos”.

The piece, written in seven weeks, derived much of its success from the performance of Théo in the title role; she returned, along with Daubray, for a revival in 1875 at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens. The work was successfully revived again in 1892 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance (with Juliette Simon-Girard as Rose and Simon-Max as Poirot) and in 1898 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté with Mariette Sully.

It was seen at the Alhambra in London from 18 May 1874 with Kate Santley, bowdlerized, as the libretto was « inadmissible in an English theatre ».

Outside France, La jolie parfumeuse was also produced (often in translation) in Brussels, Antwerp and Vienna in 1874, Berlin, New York, Birmingham and Milan in 1875, Mexico in 1876 and Stockholm in 1891, but did not remain in the repertory during the 20th century, despite broadcasts on French radio and a run at the Royal Academy of Music in 1973. The Neighbor's Chorus "Soyez donc bon homme" at the opening of act 3 remains a favorite of choral societies, however.

Setting: Paris, 18th century

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