Les p'tites Michu

Les p'tites Michu is a French musical comedy by A. Vanloo ()[] and G. Duval ()[], with music by André Messager ()[]

The original text

is an opérette in three acts, with music by André Messager and words by Albert Vanloo and Georges Duval. The piece is set in Paris in the years following the French Revolution and depicts the complications ensuing after the identities of two girls become confused in their infancy.

The opera opened at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris, on 16 November 1897 and ran for more than 150 performances. It became an international success, with productions in four continents, including an unusually long run of 400 performances in London, and had subsequent revivals in Paris.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English as The Little Michus by Henry Hamilton ()[].

Performance history in South Africa

1908: Performed as The Little Michus by a new Gaiety company at the Opera House, Cape Town, at the start of the year.

Sources

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: pp.427-8.

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