Une éducation manquée

Une éducation manquée (An Incomplete Education) is an opérette in one act and nine scenes by Emmanuel Chabrier. The French libretto was by Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo. Composed in 1878–79, the work, which is set in the 18th century, is in a lively, light operetta style in which Chabrier excelled and had perfected in L’étoile a year or so earlier. It was much admired by Ravel, Hahn and Messager, among others.

The ‘opérette’ was first performed on 1 May 1879 as part of an evening’s entertainment organized by the ‘Cercle international’ in the Boulevard des Capucines, with piano accompaniment by Chabrier himself. It was revived in March 1910 in Monte Carlo and on 9 January 1911 at the Théâtre des Arts conducted by Gabriel Grovlez. In December 1918 Jane Bathori mounted the piece at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. The 1924 Paris production by Diaghilev, designed by Juan Gris and conducted by André Messager, had recitatives by Darius Milhaud to replace the spoken dialogue. Milhaud also composed an aria for Hélène based on a melody he found among Chabrier’s unpublished manuscripts, Couplets de Mariette.

The first performance at the Paris Opéra-Comique, conducted by Roger Désormière, was on 24 March 1938, and it reached its 50th performance there in April 1946. It has occasionally been revived, though sometimes with Gontran transposed for a tenor.

The overture quotes from “Lorsque le ciel”, the letter song and “Faisons-nous petits”.

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