Tailleferre: Opéras Bouffes - Volume 2 (La Pauvre Eugénie / M. Petitpois Achète Un Château)

Description

Libretto by Denise Centore

Pursuing their pastiche of French opera, Germaine Tailleferre and Denise Centore now turn to the great realistic vein of Gustave Charpentier and Alfred Bruneau, whose pioneering approach invited everyday language and characters to the operatic stage. Pauvre Eugénie takes place in Paris in 1905, at Madame Phémie's lingerie workshOp. She has a husband, Monsieur Ernesse, and employs three seamstresses: the impish Titine, the sentimental Paula, and Eugénie, the heroine of this story, or rather (to keep with the spirit of that time), of these "slices of life" - the musical equivalent of Zola's Rougon-Macquart. Gégène appears only at the end. At the beginning of the opera, the three girls are busy sewing fine lawn petticoats frilled with lace while Monsieur Ernest makes no secret of his bad mood. Madame Phémie scolds the girls for being lazy and suddenly discovers that Eugénie is not working but eating garlic sausage! Fired on the sport for misdemeanor, the poor, desperate girl wants to drown herself in the Seine. Horrified at the thought, Titine and Paula remind her of the child she's had with that Monsieur J. Duplan who once promised to marry her. Surely, she does not want the poor child to be an orphan? At that very moment, someone knocks at the door: it is Gégène, with a feather boa for Madame Phémie. Titine and Paula are indignant: how can she be thinking of feather boas when she has just fired a poor single mother! Gégène is just as indignant and wants to meet Eugénie. It is love at first sight! All's well that ends well: Eugénie goes off with Gégène, leaving her heartless employer.

The last (existing) opera of the cycle is the Offenbach-flavored Monsieur Petitpois achète un château. The protagonists are clad in Second Empire fashion, and the scene is a medieval castle near Romorantin, the family estate of Monsieur le Duc de la Bombardière. The duke has everything: a son, Adélestan (a handsome young man who serves as a hussar lieutenant), a devoted and familiar servant, Cunégonde (Adélestan's old nurse), and an able notary, Maître Pointillard. The one thing he does not have is… money. That is, he still has some, but how long will it last? He has resolved to sell his castle and is currently waiting for a potential buyer, Monsieur Petitpois. He's discussing the matter with his notary, and right after the overture, will even ask his maid, Madame Cunégonde, for advice.

Pieces

• La pauvre Eugénie (1955)
• Monsieur Petitpois achete un château (1955)