Le voyage dans la lune (opera-féerie)
Le voyage dans la Lune is an 1875 opéra-féerie in four acts and 23 scenes by Jacques Offenbach. Loosely based on the 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne, its French libretto was by Albert Vanloo, Eugène Leterrier and Arnold Mortier. This was another prolific year for the composer, that included also the third version of Geneviève de Brabant, Les hannetons, La boulangère a des écus, La créole and a waltz for Tarte à la crême.
Jacques Offenbach by Nadar, c. 1860s
1875 poster from the première of the operetta, by Edward Ancourt [fr]
Christian (Vlan) and Zulma Bouffar (Prince Caprice) in Le voyage dans la Lune, in the charlatans scene.
Sheet music showing scene from the piece
Jacques Offenbach 20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss II and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory.
Offenbach by Nadar
Offenbach in the 1840s
Offenbach as a young cello virtuoso: drawing by Alexandre Laemlein from 1850
The composer-conductor caricatured, 1858