Les cloches de Corneville

Les cloches de Corneville (known in English as The Chimes of Normandy or The Bells of Corneville) is an opera-comique in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a French libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet based on a play by Gabet.

In 1876, the director of the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, Louis Cantin, hired Planquette to compose the operetta, which had originally been intended for Hervé. Despite initially mixed reviews (the storyline was criticized for its similarity to La dame blanche and Martha), it became probably the most popular French operetta of all time, with hit productions in London and elsewhere. Les cloches de Corneville was Planquette's first full operetta score and has been praised for its fine melodies, rhythmic variety, good choral writing and complex orchestral colour (although Planquette may not have done the orchestration himself).

Les cloches de Corneville was first produced in Paris at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, opening on April 19, 1877, and ran for 408 performances.

The operetta was then produced as The Chimes of Normandy at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City, beginning on October 22, 1877. There was also another New York run in 1878. Later productions included one as The Bells of Corneville at the Victoria Theater, New York, beginning on April 21, 1902.

In London, it played at the Folly Theatre, with an English libretto by H. B. Farnie and Robert Reece, opening on February 28, 1878 (transferring to the Globe Theatre on 31 August 1878 as The Chimes of Normandy), outlasting H.M.S. Pinafore by running for a world record-setting 705 performances (holding this record until Dorothy in 1886).Violet Cameron and Shiel Barry starred as Germaine and Gaspard. At the same time, the production toured the provinces, starring Florence St. John as Germaine, who then joined the London cast late in the run, making her West End debut.

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