Miss Helyett

Miss Helyett ("Miss Eliot") is a comic opera by Audran ()[], with a book by Maxime Boucheron ()[].

The original text

Telling of the accidental meeting of an American girl and a French artist in the Pyrénées, it was first performed in French at the Bouffes Parisiens on November, 1890, and became immensely popular with Parisian audiences, being performed a staggering 816 times.

Translations and adaptations

Originally adapted into English as Miss Decima by F.C. Burnand ()[], it was performed at the Criterion Theatre, London, opening on 23 July. In New York it opened under the original title of Miss Helyett at the Star Theatre on 3 November, 1891, in a new production by David Belasco ()[].

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

Richard Traubner. 2004. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Routledge: p.90[1]

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

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