Le mariage aux lanternes (The Wedding by Lantern-Light) is an opérette in one act by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Michel Carré and Léon Battu.[1]
It was first performed at the Salle Choiseul, Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris, on 10 October 1857. The operetta was a reworking of Le trésor à Mathurin, with words by Battu (1829–1857), which had a well-received single performance at the Salle Herz, Paris, on 7 May 1853 but was subsequently lost.[2]
After the Paris premiere, Le mariage aux lanternes was produced in Berlin and Vienna in 1858, Prague, Graz and Budapest in 1859, London, New York, Brussels, Stockholm in 1860, Moscow in 1871 and Milan in 1875. Later it was revived at the Opéra-Comique in 1919, Stockholm in 1927 and Berlin in 1930.[3]
The work is in Offenbach's more pastoral and sentimental style rather than the 'bouffonerie' of some of his contemporary stage works.[4]