Jean-Robert Planquette
Jean-Robert Planquette was born in Paris on July 31, 1848. He attended the Paris Conservatory after which he supported himself by writing popular songs and chansonettes for Parisian café-concerts. He started writing operettas in 1874, and achieved world fame with The Chimes of Normandy in 1877. He wrote many more operettas after that, the most successful being Rip Van Winkle (1882), Nell Gwynne (1884) and Mam’zelle Quat’Sous (1897). He died in Paris on January 28, 1903.
The Chimes of Normandy (Les Cloches de Corneville) is one of the most famous French operettas of all time, and it is still occasionally revived. Introduced in Paris at the Folies Dramatiques on April 19, 1877, its success was so immediate and permanent that within a decade it had been given over a thousand times in Paris alone. It was first seen in New York in 1877, and in London in 1888, major successes in both places. The book by Clairville and Gabet presents the life of fishing and peasant folk in Normandy during the regime of Louis XV. Germaine is in love with the fisherman, Jean, but finds opposition in her miserly old uncle, Gaspard, who has other plans for her. To escape her uncle, Germaine finds employment with Henri, a Marquis, who has suddenly returned to his native village to take up residence in the family castle rumored to be haunted. The mystery of the haunted castle is cleared up when the discovery is made that Gaspard has used it to hide his gold; and the bells of the castle begin to ring out loud and clear again. Gaspard, after a brief siege with insanity, is made to sanction the marriage of Germaine and Jean at a magnificent festival honoring the Marquis; at the same time it is suddenly uncovered that Germaine is in reality a Marchioness.
This is an operetta overflowing with ear-caressing melodies. The most famous are Germaine’s bell song, “Nous avons, hélas, perdu d’excellence maîtres”; the Marquis’ lilting waltz-rondo, “Même sans consulter mon coeur”; and Serpolette’s cider song, “La Pomme est un fruit plein de sève.”