Madame l'Archiduc

Overview

Madame l'Archiduc is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach to a libretto by Albert Millaud, first performed at the Bouffes-Parisiens (Salle Choiseul), Paris, on 31 October 1874. After a slow start it had an opening run of 100 performances and was seen in Vienna in 1875 and London in 1876 (Wikipedia, "Madame l'archiduc"). The setting is the duchy of Parma around 1820: the innkeeper's servants Giletti and Marietta are paid to pass as the Count and Countess of Castelardo; the conspirators plot to kill the archduke Ernest, who falls for Marietta and abdicates in her favour.

Marie and this work

Spring 1875: the operetta's tunes are in her head, and she names a dress after it.

• 15 January 1875, Paris. She goes to the Bouffes-Parisiens for it after a walk in the Bois (028.0240).
• 31 March 1875, Nice. The Prince of Wales, who is in Nice, has asked for Madame l'archiduc at the theatre; she takes a box at the Français (030.0425).
• 4 April 1875, Nice. In her anonymous letter to the Prince of Wales asking for his signed portrait: "Ce que je fais est plus original que l'archiduc Ernest d'Offenbach" (031.0018). Archduke Ernest is the operetta's archduke; the LAN note on that paragraph, which names La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, is mistaken.
• 10 April 1875, Cannes. "Je raffole de Madame l'Archiduc, je ne fais que la chanter. En arrivant à sept heures à Cannes au lieu de parler je chante l'Archiduc et me conduis comme une folle" (031.0179).
• 14 April - 3 June 1875. Her straw-coloured dress, first the "robe prince de Galles", is renamed "robe Archiduc" and noted in her outfit parentheses (031.0230, 031.0253, 032.0121, 032.0152, 032.0426, 033.0467). On 25 May she calls a family affair "la grande affaire du château de Castellardo, comme dans Madame l'Archiduc" (033.0209).
• 21 September 1875. A complaint of her own is sung "sur l'air de Madame l'Archi-duchesse" (043.0378).
• 10 April 1876, Rome. She goes to the Teatro Valle, where it is given for the benefit of the prima donna Preziosi (057.0102).

Not this work

080.0427-0428 (6 June 1878) mentions real archdukes at a ball in Paris and does not concern the operetta.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Madame l'archiduc"; IMSLP.
• Libretto on Wikisource, linked above.