Mam'zelle Nitouche
by Hervé

Vaudeville-opérette in three acts and four tableaux by Hervé on a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Albert Millaud,
premiered on 26 January 1883 at the Théâtre des Variétés.

Even though it is not Hervé’s final composition, Mam’zelle Nitouche may be regarded as his musical testament, or at least his crowning achievement. The work, whose subject was based on the composer’s own life – a convent organist becomes a man of the theatre and composer of light music once night has fallen – skilfully blends the comic tone of the post-1870 period (as found in Lecocq, in particular), the spirit of café-concert revues and the breathless rhythm of the spoken theatre inherited from Labiche. Indeed, at its premiere in January 1883, the piece was entitled ‘comédie-vaudeville’, reflecting the central importance of its dramatic action, and the music was more specifically conceived to accompany witty comic ‘turns’ by soloists. The title role, in particular, is assigned a significant number of arias and duets to showcase the theatrical and vocal dynamism of Anna Judic, the first of a long series of stars to sing Mam’zelle Nitouche. The work’s success far surpassed Hervé’s hopes, and was prolonged in the twentieth century by a number of filmed adaptations, one of the last of which featured no less a star than Fernandel in the role of Célestin, originally played by Hervé himself. Mam’zelle Nitouche was translated into many languages, and is still present in the collective memory of older generations in Russia and Italy, for example.