Le postillon de Lonjumeau

Le postillon de Lonjumeau (The Postillion of Lonjumeau) is an opéra-comique in three acts by Adolphe Adam to a French libretto by 'Adolphe de Leuven' and 'Brunswick' (pen names of Adolphe von Ribbing and Léon Lévy).

The opera has become the most successful of Adam's works, and the one by which (apart from his ballet Giselle and his Christmas carol Cantique de Noël) he is best known outside his native France. The opera is known for the difficult aria 'Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire' which has been called a test for tenors because of the demanding high D, or D5, at the end of the aria.

The opera was premiered by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris on 13 October 1836. Performances followed at the St. James Theatre, London on 13 March 1837, and in New Orleans at the Théâtre d'Orléans on 19 April 1838.

Recent productions have been mounted in the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden (from 4 August 2000) under Sebastian Weigle, directed by Alexander Schulin with Gert Henning-Jensen (Chapelou), Simone Nold (Madeleine), Hanno-Müller Brachmann (Biju), Klaus Häger (Corcy), and Bernd Zettisch (Bourdon), and at the Grand Théâtre, Dijon (from 30 March 2004 under Philippe Cambreling, directed by Patrick Abéjean with Bruno Comparetti (Chappelou / Saint-Phar), Isabelle Poulenard (Madeleine / Madame de Latour), Laurent Alvaro (le Marquis de Corcy), Jean Vendassi (Biju / Alcindor), Michèle Dumont (Rose), and Matthieu Grenier (Bourdon). The latter was a co-production of Opéra Paris-Sud and Opéra de Dijon.

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