La Fille de Madame Angot's score in its context

‘Charles Lecocq is a greater composer than he is usually believed to be and than he himself believed’, Paul Landormy once remarked, whether or not he did so as a riposte to the perceived despotism of Offenbach’s genius in the field of operetta. Without looking into the matter too closely, one might say that Offenbach places music at the service of theatre: elementary, banal if need be, his principal elegance is to hide his technical assurance behind the apparent shoddiness of the writing. It is almost the opposite with Lecocq, where dramatic situations and diversions, suspensions or reversals of plotting stimulate appropriate musical settings whose grace, mischievous strength and sham naivety offer unapologetic delight.