Les P’tites Michu

Two little girls, one of high birth, the other of more modest origins, mixed up in their bath; a planned marriage; the first pangs of love and a few intrigues . . . On an amusing narrative framework, Messager skilfully wove a nimble, joyful score, as graceful as it is invigorating. Beneath the superficial facility of a style that sometimes recalls Lecocq, the composer’s sureness of touch is expressed in all its plenitude. If the straightforward, elegant melodies are immediately attractive, it is the harmonisation and instrumentation that give them their full value. Les P’tites Michu was an overnight success after its premiere at the Bouffes-Parisiens on 16 November 1897. The cast included two big stars of the Parisian stage in the title roles, Alice Bonheur (Marie-Blanche) and Odette Dulac (Blanche-Marie). Every number in the score quickly became a ‘hit song’, notably the duet ‘Blanche-Marie et Marie-Blanche’. After a run more than 150 performances, the work toured the provinces and was subsequently staged outside France; it even ended up becoming a Broadway musical twenty years later.