Mam'zelle Nitouche

Mam'zelle Nitouche (approx. "Little Miss Hypocrite") is a French vaudeville-opérette in three acts by Hervé (1825-1892)[1], Henri Meilhac (1830–1897)[2] and Albert Millaud (1844-1892)[3].

The original text

Composed by Hervé, with a libretto by Meilhac and Millaud, the musical play tells the story of a respectable musician, transforming himself into a songwriter at night, and is in part based on the life of the composer himself.

According to the French comic actress Anna Judic (1849–1911)[4], the leading role had been expressly written for her and she performed it when the work was first performed in French at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris on 26 January 1883.

Translations and adaptations

The so-called Judic edition of the play was published by F. Rullman in New York, in both the French original and an English translation by an unknown translator, printed for Judic's American tour of 1885.

Numerous film have been made of the work between 1912 and 1976 - see for example the Wikipedia entry on Mam'zelle Nitouche[5] for a list of such films.

Performance history in South Africa

1894: Performed in English in the second half of the year by the Cairns James Company as part of their season in the Good Hope Theatre, Cape Town, under the auspices of the Wheeler Theatre Company.

Sources

Facsimnile version of the 1885 Judic Edition, Hathi Trust Digital Library [6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mam%27zelle_Nitouche

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herv%C3%A9_(composer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Meilhac

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Millaud

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.400

Go to ESAT Bibliography