Les cloches de Corneville (known in English as The Chimes of Normandy or The Bells of Corneville) is an operetta in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a French libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet based on a play by Gabet.
In 1876, the director of the Folies-Dramatiques, Louis Cantin, hired Planquette to compose the operetta, which had originally been intended for Hervé. Despite initially mixed reviews (the storyline was criti...
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Les cloches de Corneville (known in English as The Chimes of Normandy or The Bells of Corneville) is an operetta in three acts, composed by Robert Planquette to a French libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet based on a play by Gabet.
In 1876, the director of the Folies-Dramatiques, Louis Cantin, hired Planquette to compose the operetta, which had originally been intended for Hervé. Despite initially mixed reviews (the storyline was criticized for its similarity to La dame blanche and Martha), it became probably the most popular French operetta of all time. Les cloches de Corneville was Planquette's first full operetta score and has been praised for its fine melodies, rhythmic variety, good choral writing and complex orchestral colour (although Planquette may not have done the orchestration himself).
Les cloches de Corneville was first produced in Paris at the Théàtre des Folies-Dramatiques, opening on April 19, 1877, and ran for 408 performances.
The operetta was then...
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