Mârouf, savetier du Caire (Marouf, Cobbler of Cairo) is an opéra comique

Opéra comique

Opéra comique is a genre of French opera that contains spoken dialogue and arias. It emerged out of the popular opéra comiques en vaudevilles of the Fair Theatres of St Germain and St Laurent , which combined existing popular tunes with spoken sections...

by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 composer Henri Rabaud

Henri Rabaud

Henri Rabaud was a French conductor and composer, who held important posts in the French musical establishment and upheld mainly conservative trends in French music in the first half of the twentieth century....

. The libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

, by Lucien Nepoty, is based on a tale from the Arabian Nights. Mârouf was first performed 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...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, on 15 May 1914. The premiere was a great success and Mârouf became Rabaud's most popular opera. The score makes great use of oriental colour. The United States premiere of the opera was given at the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 on December 19, 1917 with Giuseppe De Luca

Giuseppe de Luca

Giuseppe De Luca , was a famous Italian baritone who achieved his greatest triumphs at the New York Metropolitan Opera...

 in the title role, Frances Alda

Frances Alda

Frances Alda was a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised operatic soprano. She achieved fame during the first three decades of the 20th century due to her outstanding singing voice, fine technique and colourful personality—and frequent onstage partnerships at the New York Metropolitan Opera with the...

 as Princess Saamcheddine, and Pierre Monteux

Pierre Monteux

Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...

 conducting.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere Cast Conductor Conducting Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble... : François Ruhlmann
Mârouf	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...	Jean Périer Jean Périer Jean Périer was a French operatic baritone and actor. Although he sang principally within the operetta repertoire, Périer did portray a number of opera roles; mostly within operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giacomo Puccini...
Princess Saamcheddine	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...	Marthe Davelli
Fattoumah	soprano	Jeanne Tiphaine
The Sultan of Khiatan	bass	Félix Vieuille Félix Vieuille Félix Vieuille was a French operatic bass who sang for more than four decades with the Opéra-Comique in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century...
His vizier	bass	Delvoye
Ali	bass	Daniel Vigneau

Synopsis

The hen-pecked cobbler Marouf decides to join a group of sailors and travels to Khiatan where he pretends to be a rich merchant awaiting the arrival of his caravan. The sultan is impressed and offers him the hand of his daughter Saamcheddine. Marouf's deception is discovered and he flees, followed by the princess, who has fallen in love with him. They find a mysterious ring which gives Marouf power over a magician. The magician grants Marouf's wish for the caravan he boasted about to become reality. The sultan is appeased, pardons Marouf and allows him to marry Saamcheddine.

Sources

• The Viking Opera Guide ed. Holden (Viking, 1993)
• Del Teatro (in Italian)
• Amadeus Online