Le voyage dans la lune (operetta)

Le voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) is an opéra-féerie in four acts and 23 scenes by Jacques Offenbach. Loosely based on the novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, its French libretto was by Albert Vanloo, Eugène Leterrier and Arnold Mortier.

It premiered on 26 October 1875 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté. The production was revived at the Théâtre du Châtelet, on 31 March 1877.

The idea for the work was presented to Jacques Offenbach while he was head (director) of the Théâtre de la Gaîté, but due to the need to raise the necessary money he did not take up the project. Eventually Albert Vizentini, the new directeur of the Gaîté, took up the idea, and Offenbach's contribution was limited to that of composer.

Albert Vanloo and Eugène Leterrier, in association with Arnold Mortier (columnist at Figaro), wrote the libretto. They were hoping for a repeat of the success of the novels of Jules Verne (another, the novel Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours, had been adapted for the stage at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin by Verne himself in 1874) and the public taste for grand spectacles.

A few days after the premiere of Voyage dans la Lune, Jules Verne complained about its similarities to his work : "Two days after the first production of Voyage à la lune [sic] the loans to the authors from "From the Earth to the Moon" as the point of departure and from "Centre of the Earth" as the dénouement seem to me incontestable.". This dispute does not seem to have continued, or may have been settled amicably, for by 1877, Jacques Offenbach based his Le docteur Ox on another Jules Verne novel, with his agreement.

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