Madame Chrysanthème is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, described as a comédie lyrique, with music by André Messager

André Messager

André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...

 to a libretto by Georges Hartmann

Georges Hartmann

Georges Hartmann was a French dramatist and opera librettist who wrote under the pen name Henri Grémont.Since 1870 he was also a music publisher, publishing compositions of Jules Massenet...

 and Alexandre André, after the semi-autobiographical Madame Chrysanthème (1887) by Pierre Loti

Pierre Loti

Pierre Loti was a French novelist and naval officer.-Biography:Loti's education began in his birthplace, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime. At the age of seventeen he entered the naval school in Brest and studied at Le Borda. He gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906...

. It consists of four acts with a prologue and an epilogue and is set in Nagasaki

Nagasaki

is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...

, Japan.

Background

Prior to Madame Chrysanthème Messager had several ballets performed, incidental music for the play Hélène

Hélène (drama)

Hélène is a drame in four acts and five tableaux of 1891, with French words by Paul Delair and incidental music by André Messager.The story, found by the author in the fait divers of a newspaper concerns a child, Hélène, who, learning that her father has been murdered by his mother, swears...

 in 1891, and success at the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

 in 1890 with La Basoche

La Basoche

La Basoche is an opéra comique in three acts of 1890, with music by André Messager and a French libretto by Albert Carré.-History:Messager's 1889 opérette Le mari de la reine at Bouffes-Parisiens was a disappointment, and the composer and his wife were struggling to afford even basic necessities...

.
Madame Chrysanthème was first performed at the Théâtre de la Renaissance

Théâtre de la Renaissance

The name Théâtre de la Renaissance has been used successively for three distinct Parisian theatre companies. The first two companies, which were short-lived enterprises in the 19th century, used the Salle Ventadour, now an office building on the Rue Méhul in the 2nd arrondissement.The current...

 in Paris on 21 January 1893 with Jane Guy and Louis Delaquerrière in the principal roles; there were 16 performances at the theatre in the first year.

There were two performances in Monte Carlo on 21 December 1901 and 3 January 1902 with Mary Garden

Mary Garden

Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...

 and Edmond Clément

Edmond Clément

Edmond Clément was a French lyric tenor who earned an international reputation due to the polished artistry of his singing....

 in the principal roles. The opera was also seen at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie

La Monnaie

Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....

, Brussels on 9 November 1906, Montreal in 1912, and Chicago and New York in 1920.

Although using the same literary source as Puccini's Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...

, Madame Chrysanthème contrasts strongly with the mainly internal world of the Puccini setting. The alternation of acts in public and private spaces in Messager's work provides other aspects on the Japan as depicted in the opera, reminding the listener of a teeming world effectively beyond the reach of Europeans: between Messager and Puccini there is a significant contrast between Pierre's failure to understand and master Chrysanthème and Pinkerton's dominance and possession of Butterfly.

A highlight of the score is the soprano air "Le jour sous le soleil béni...".

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 12 December 1893 (Conductor: André Messager)
Pierre	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Louis Delaquerrière Louis Delaquerrière Louis-Achille Delaquerrière, born in Les Loges, France 25 February 1858, died 1937 was a French opera singer, and later a teacher active in France.-Life and career:...
Monsieur Kangourou	tenor	Charles Lamy
Yves	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Jacquin
Monsieur Sucre	bass	Declercq
Un gabier (topman)	-	Gesta
Premier Officier René	bass	Chassaing
Deuxieme Officer Charles	bass	Halary
Madame Chrysanthème	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Jane Guy
Madame Prune	contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...	Caisso
Oyouki	soprano	Nettie Lynds
Madame Fraise	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Micot
Madame Jonquille	soprano	Alberty
Madame Campanulle	soprano	Dica
Chorus: Officers, sailors, Europeans, Japanese.