Aim�e Opera Bouffe: La Vie Parisienne

Event Information

Venue(s):
Lyceum Theatre

Proprietor / Lessee:
Charles Chamberlain, Jr.

Manager / Director:
Carlo A. Chizzola
Charles Chamberlain, Jr.

Conductor(s):
Charles [conductor] Van Ghel

Price: $1; $2 orchestra, balcony; $1.50 orchestra stall; $1 dress circle; $.75 second balcony; $.50 gallery; $15 & $20 boxes

Event Type:
Opera

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
2 May 2025

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

23 Mar 1874, Evening
24 Mar 1874, Evening
25 Mar 1874, Evening

Performers and/or Works Performed

1)
Vie parisienne, La
aka Pariser Leben
Composer(s): Offenbach
Text Author: Meilhac
Participants:  Aimée Opera Bouffe Company;  Marie Aimée (role: Gabriel);  [tenor] Juteau (role: Le Baron);  [baritone] Lecuyer (role: Bobinet);  Rosina Stani (role: Metella);  Eugene Duplan (role: Baron de Gondremark)

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-York Times, 22 March 1874, 5.
2)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 22 March 1874, 7.
3)
Review: New-York Daily Tribune, 24 March 1874, 5.

“‘La Vie Parisienne’ was brought out at the Lyceum last night, to a full house. The performance was dull. The piece contains much vulgarity. M. Lecuyer afforded the little amusement that the spectators attained. Mlle. Aimee was copiously applauded for her comic song about Schneider.”

4)
Review: New York Post, 24 March 1874, 2.
“Offenbach’s charming opera bouffe, ‘La Vie Parisienne,’ was given at the Lyceum Theatre last night before a large audience. The work, although not possessing the brilliancy and beauty of ‘La Grande Duchesse’ or ‘La Belle Hélène,’ is still very pleasing, and abounds with the vivacious and melodious music for which Offenbach is famous.
 
The real success of last night was made by M. Emile Juteau, whose capacities as a comedian were fully shown. He impersonated four quite different characters, viz: the Brazilian, the Mexican, the Alsatian and a servant (who in the course of the last act represents a prince). The amusement which he afforded was well appreciated by the audience. Aimée, as usual, was full of chic and wit, and in the second act, where she sung a Tyrolienne in German, she received a double encore; but after all the part of Gabriel is scarcely worthy of her. Mlle. Stani as Metella, and M. Duplan as the Baron de Gondremark were well received. The chorus and orchestra were rather weak, the brass instruments in the latter being most harsh and loud, drowning the violins and all the other less powerful instruments.
 
The dialogue in the opera is very witty, except in the first act, where everything seemed to drag along till M. Juteau appeared on the scene as the rich Brazilian. But after this the audience were kept in a constant state of amused delight, especially in the second act, where Juteau so admirably impersonates an Alsation shoemaker.”
5)
Review: New-York Times, 25 March 1874, 4.

“‘La Vie Parisienne’ was performed Monday evening and yesterday by Mlle. Aimée and her troupe, the piece being then given for the first time in five years. ‘La Vie Parisienne’ is rather a vaudeville with songs, than an opera bouffe in the truest sense of the word. Although it affords unusual scope for acting, it is full, however, of tuneful measures, and their treatment is of a more careful kind than that of Offenbach’s themes in many of his more widely-known achievements. The representations at the Lyceum, Monday and last night, delighted large and remarkably fashionable audiences. Mlle. Aimée, than whom no more fascinating and skilled representative of opera bouffe is to be found here or in Europe, fills with vast spirit the rôle of Gabrielle, and sings the tyrolienne at the end of the third act so charmingly that its immediate repetition is invariably insisted upon. M. Juteau diffuses merriment in the garb of the Brazilian, in that of the Alsatian shoe-maker, and in that of the diplomatist en disponibilité; M. Duplan is very funny as Baron De Gondremark, a Swedish nobleman, who tries to ‘do’ Paris, and M. Lécuyer’s every movement, as Bobinet, excites hearty laughter. The important rôle of Metella falls to Mlle. Stani, who is not well suited to it. The remaining personages are allotted to familiar artists, and a good chorus and capital orchestra unite in a really amusing entertainment. That the public so considers it is shown, we have to state, by Mr. Chizzola’s determination to prolong his sojourn at the Lyceum by one week.”

6)
Review: New York Sun, 25 March 1874, 2.

“A large audience was entertained at the Lyceum Theatre on Monday evening by the first performance, since five years ago, of ‘La Vie Parisienne.’ To all persons interested in French opera bouffe this work is too well known to need description at this time. It was represented with much spirit, and its humorous satire readily perceived by a large portion of the auditory. Mlle. Aimée as Gabriel, M. Juteau in four successive characters, and M. Duplan as Le Baron, all did good work, and contributed greatly to the success of the representation.”