Les bavards
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Les bavards (English: The Chatterboxes) is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, with a French libretto by Charles-Louis-Étienne Nuitter based on "Los dos habladores", a story by Miguel de Cervantes.[1]
Les bavards was originally created as Bavard et bavarde in one-act form and performed at the Kurtheater, Bad Ems in June 1862.[2] It became Die Schwätzerin von Saragossa for Vienna in November of that year,[1] and was produced in its final two-act form at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris (Salle Choiseul) on 20 February 1863, with Delphine Ugalde as Roland, Thompson as Inès, Tostée as Béatrix and Étienne Pradeau as Sarmiento, conducted by Offenbach.[3] It entered the repertoire of the Paris Opéra Comique on 3 May 1924 conducted by Maurice Frigara, produced by Albert Carré, with Germaine Gallois as Roland and Marguerite Roger as Béatrix.[3]
It was recorded (as Pratkvarnen) on Swedish television in 1981 with Britt Marie Aruhn and Enzo Florimo among the principals.[4]
A critical edition has been published as part of the Offenbach Edition Keck (OEK), and the work is still occasionally performed.[2]
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, Bad Ems, 11 June 1862 (Conductor:) |
Revised version cast, Paris, 20 February 1863 (Conductor: Jacques Offenbach) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roland | contralto | Delphine Ugalde | Delphine Ugalde |
| Sarmiento | bass | Étienne Pradeau | Étienne Pradeau |
| Béatrix, Sarmiento's wife | soprano | Lucille Tostée | Lucille Tostée |
| Inès, their niece | soprano | Thompson | |
| Pedro, servant of Sarmiento | spoken role | Luigi Walter | |
| Cristobal, the alcade | bass | Désiré | Désiré |
| Torribo, his scrivener | tenor | Édouard | |
| Catalinon, a cigar merchant, creditor | soprano | ||
| Torbisco, a barber, creditor | soprano | ||
| Bernadillo, a muleteer, creditor | soprano | ||
| Barocal, a shoemaker, creditor | soprano | ||
| Chorus: creditors and neighbours | |||
