Malvina

The triumph of Ciboulette in 1923 at the Théâtre des Variétés, had brought Reynaldo Hahn to the forefront in the revival of French opérette. For Malvina, Maurice Donnay and Henri Duvernois provided the composer with a delightful and very effective libretto, set in 1830 at the time of the July Revolution (the insurrection that brought Louis-Philippe to the throne of France). Monsieur Cochard, a “marchand de frivolités”, deplores the fact that his two young assistants are both wooing his younger daughter, Malvina, thus leaving her sister, Adèle, who is in love with one of them, without a suitor. Like Véronique with the outing to Romainville, and Ciboulette with a passage set in Aubervilliers, Malvina is partly set in the woods of Viroflay, where in the end everything is sorted out between the young lovers. In this idyll, set against a backdrop of barricades, Hahn explores the sentimental and martial registers that had previously proved successful. Love duets brimming with charm and fine wit are found alongside vigorous pieces in the form of hymns: thus he achieved the variety of colours by which he set such store. While Le Marchand de Venise was being staged at the Opéra, rehearsals began at the Gaîté-Lyrique for Malvina, obliging Hahn to supervise both productions at the same time. Although some critics were a little irritated by his simultaneous presence on both stages, they had to admit that he was as accomplished in the art of grand opera as he was in the comic genre. Conducted by Jules Gressier on 23 March 1935, the première of Malvina was a great success. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, on 12 July 1945, the composer himself conducted a revival of the workat a benefit gala held at the Opéra-Comique.