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At a bar inspired by Manet’s painting, the barmaid leaves her counter to dance with the waiter Valentin. When the can-can dancers arrive, she retreats behind the bar; Valentin then falls for La Goulue, leaving the barmaid heartbroken. After the others leave, she resumes the pose of Manet’s painting.
In ancient Corinth, Hylas pauses at the home of Briséïs and her sick mother, Thanastô, before seeking his fortune in Syria. Hylas and Briséïs swear to love each other beyond death. Thanastô prays for the salvation of the pagans around her, while Briséïs worries about Hylas and her mother. The Catechist promises Thanastô’s salvation if Briséïs follows him; bound by her mother’s vow to remain a bride of God, Briséïs goes with him. In the projected final acts, Hylas returns after a shipwreck, Briséïs kills herself and invites him to die with her, and he follows her into the grave.
From a palace balcony, Goulgouly falls in love with Fisch-Ton-Kan, who reveals he is a Tartar prince exiled as a baby. Emperor Kakao orders foreigners to surrender an ear and attempts to kill Fisch-Ton-Kan, first by boiling him in a teapot and then by impalement. Fisch-Ton-Kan escapes by removing a beetle from Kakao’s nose and wins Goulgouly’s hand. This plot is summarized from the original play.
When Danish raiders attack a Saxon village, Gwendoline pleads with their leader Harald to spare her father, Armel. She and Harald fall in love and marry, but Armel plots revenge; as the Danes are attacked, Harald is killed and Gwendoline takes her own life beside him.
Henri de Valois, elected king of Poland, longs to return to France. He joins a conspiracy against himself, disguises himself as his friend Nangis, and maneuvers among the conspirators while pursuing Alexina. When Henri escapes toward the frontier, Alexina helps him; Nangis and Minka are reunited, and Henri is brought back and acclaimed as king.
King Ouf searches his city in disguise for someone to execute as a birthday celebration. A visiting ambassador and his party are traveling incognito, with Princess Laoula disguised as the ambassador’s wife, and they intend her to marry Ouf. Laoula and the peddler Lazuli fall in love. When Lazuli insults the disguised king, Ouf orders his execution, but the astrologer Siroco warns that their fates are linked. Lazuli escapes harm, and after plans to elope and a failed attempt to flee, Ouf blesses his marriage to Laoula.
Newlyweds Gontran and Hélène seek advice about married life from their relatives and from Gontran’s tutor, Pausanias. Gontran asks Pausanias for the lesson in life he believes is missing from his education. During a storm, Hélène seeks comfort and the couple discover their answer, but Pausanias interrupts them again.
An unfinished comic opérette by Chabrier to a French libretto by Paul Verlaine; its surviving numbers portray the cowardly, bawdy title character as a satire of Napoleon III.
At a bar inspired by Manet’s painting, the barmaid leaves her counter to dance with the waiter Valentin. When the can-can dancers arrive, she retreats behind the bar; Valentin then falls for La Goulue, leaving the barmaid heartbroken. After the others leave, she resumes the pose of Manet’s painting.
In ancient Corinth, Hylas pauses at the home of Briséïs and her sick mother, Thanastô, before seeking his fortune in Syria. Hylas and Briséïs swear to love each other beyond death. Thanastô prays for the salvation of the pagans around her, while Briséïs worries about Hylas and her mother. The Catechist promises Thanastô’s salvation if Briséïs follows him; bound by her mother’s vow to remain a bride of God, Briséïs goes with him. In the projected final acts, Hylas returns after a shipwreck, Briséïs kills herself and invites him to die with her, and he follows her into the grave.
From a palace balcony, Goulgouly falls in love with Fisch-Ton-Kan, who reveals he is a Tartar prince exiled as a baby. Emperor Kakao orders foreigners to surrender an ear and attempts to kill Fisch-Ton-Kan, first by boiling him in a teapot and then by impalement. Fisch-Ton-Kan escapes by removing a beetle from Kakao’s nose and wins Goulgouly’s hand. This plot is summarized from the original play.
When Danish raiders attack a Saxon village, Gwendoline pleads with their leader Harald to spare her father, Armel. She and Harald fall in love and marry, but Armel plots revenge; as the Danes are attacked, Harald is killed and Gwendoline takes her own life beside him.
Henri de Valois, elected king of Poland, longs to return to France. He joins a conspiracy against himself, disguises himself as his friend Nangis, and maneuvers among the conspirators while pursuing Alexina. When Henri escapes toward the frontier, Alexina helps him; Nangis and Minka are reunited, and Henri is brought back and acclaimed as king.
King Ouf searches his city in disguise for someone to execute as a birthday celebration. A visiting ambassador and his party are traveling incognito, with Princess Laoula disguised as the ambassador’s wife, and they intend her to marry Ouf. Laoula and the peddler Lazuli fall in love. When Lazuli insults the disguised king, Ouf orders his execution, but the astrologer Siroco warns that their fates are linked. Lazuli escapes harm, and after plans to elope and a failed attempt to flee, Ouf blesses his marriage to Laoula.
Newlyweds Gontran and Hélène seek advice about married life from their relatives and from Gontran’s tutor, Pausanias. Gontran asks Pausanias for the lesson in life he believes is missing from his education. During a storm, Hélène seeks comfort and the couple discover their answer, but Pausanias interrupts them again.
An unfinished comic opérette by Chabrier to a French libretto by Paul Verlaine; its surviving numbers portray the cowardly, bawdy title character as a satire of Napoleon III.