Le Petit Matelot, ou Le Mariage Impromptu

Le Petit Matelot, ou Le Mariage Impromptu ("The small sailor, or the impromptu marriage") is an opéra-comique[1] in one act by Pigault Lebrun (Charles Antoine Guillaume Pigault Lebrun, 1753-1835)[2], with music by Pierre Gaveaux (1761-1825)[3]

The original text

First performed at the Théâtre de la rue Faydeau, and published in Paris by Huet and the Frères Gaveaux in 1796.

Performance history in South Africa

1808: First performed on 11 October by Het Fransche Liefhebbery Geselschap in the Fransche Liefhebbery Theatre (i.e. "French Amateur Theatre"), Cape Town, with Le Jour du Fête, ou Le Pouvoir de la Bienfaisance (Anon)

1809: On 4 February 1809 another performance was undertaken by the French Theatrical Company , this time in the African Theatre , and possibly with the participation of C.E. Boniface, as an afterpiece to Les Deux Frères, ou La Réconciliation (Von Kotzebue) (The text used was most probably the 1799 translation by Weiss, Jauffret and Patrat.)