| La Vie parisienne | |
|---|---|
| Opéra bouffe by Jacques Offenbach | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Jules_Ch%C3%A9ret_-_Poster_for_Jacques_Offenbach%27s_La_Vie_parisienne_(1866).jpg) Poster by Jules Chéret for the original production | |
| Librettist | |
| Language | French |
| Premiere | 31 October 1866 Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris |
La Vie parisienne (French pronunciation: [la vi paʁizjɛn], Parisian life) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, composed by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.[1]
This work was Offenbach's first full-length piece to portray contemporary Parisian life, unlike his earlier period pieces and mythological subjects. It became one of Offenbach's most popular operettas.
In 1864 the Théâtre du Palais-Royal presented a comedy by Meilhac and Halévy entitled Le Photographe (The Photographer), which featured a character called Raoul Gardefeu, the lover of Métella, trying to seduce a baroness. Two years earlier, a comedy by the same authors La Clé de Métella (The Key of Métella) was played at the Théâtre du Vaudeville. These two pieces presage the libretto of La vie parisienne which can be dated from late 1865.[2]