Le pauvre matelot

Le pauvre matelot (The Poor Sailor) is a three-act opera (described as a 'complainte') composed by Darius Milhaud with libretto by Jean Cocteau. Its first performance was at the Opéra-Comique on December 16, 1927. Le pauvre matelot is short, lasting about 35 minutes when performed, and is dedicated to Henri Sauguet. The composer conducted a complete recording with forces of the Paris Opera in 1956. Although Cocteau claimed that the story was inspired by a news item in a paper, the scenario can be found in a 17th-century Franco-Canadian song 'Le Funeste Retour', and the tragedy Der vierundzwanzigste Februar by Werner of 1808.

The work was a successful part of a triple bill at La Monnaie in Brussels at the end of 1927 conducted by Corneil de Thoran, preceded by the premiere of Antigone by Honegger, and followed by Shéhérazade. The German premiere was at the Kroll with Zemlinksy conducting in 1929 and with Novotná in the cast. In 1934 an amended orchestrated version was produced in Geneva under Scherchen in tandem with L'Histoire du Soldat then in Vienna, and the work was revived at the Opéra-Comique the following year. Turin, Florence and Prague saw local first performances in 1934 and 1935.

The United States premiere of the opera, produced by the Curtis Institute of Music, took place on 1 April 1937 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in a production directed by Austrian composer, librettist, and stage director Ernst Lert and using set and costume designs by Tony Award winning designer Donald Oenslager. The opera was presented in a double bill with the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Amelia Goes to the Ball. Both operas were conducted by Fritz Reiner with Sylvan Levin serving as chorus master and a young Boris Goldovsky working as Assistant Conductor. The Milhaud/Menotti double bill played later that month in Baltimore at the city's Lyric Theatre and at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City.

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