Madame Favart

Opéra-comique en 3 actes créé aux Folies-Dramatiques le 28 décembre 1878.

Synopsis

Hector, a clerk of the court, is in love with Suzanne, but her father, Major Cotignac, wishes her to marry a cousin. He has nevertheless agreed that if Hector obtains the position of police lieutenant, he can marry Suzanne. For her part, Madame Favart has been imprisoned in a convent for rejecting the advances of the elderly Maréchal de Saxe. The innkeeper Biscotin is hiding Monsieur Favart, who had fled to escape the same punishment. His wife manages to escape disguised as a nun. When she arrives at the inn, she meets her dear old friend, Hector. When he fails to be appointed to police lieutenant, Madame Favart goes to see the governor, pretending to be Hector’s wife, and obtains the post for him with some skilful flirting. Hector, Suzanne and the Favarts then head to Douai, where the Favarts wait for their first opportunity to escape to Belgium. During a party organised by Hector as the new police lieutenant, the governor arrives and flirts with Madame Favart, thinking she is the lieutenant’s wife. The end result of this mistaken identity: he arrests Suzanne thinking she is Madame Favart and sends her to the camp of the Maréchal de Saxe. Madame Favart follows the poor woman there and gives a dramatic performance which is a huge success. She receives a bouquet of flowers from the king with a note attached requiring the governor’s resignation. Favart is appointed director of the Opéra-Comique, and Madame Favart becomes the leading lady there.