La Vie parisienne : the music of the first version

Any new edition of La Vie parisienne inevitably raises questions about the object thus restored and fixed on the printed page. It was never premiered in this form, nor is it founded on a single document – such as an autograph manuscript – that would definitively establish its authority, or the composer’s consent to its performance. There is therefore a considerable risk of appearing to counter the wishes of an artist who, moreover, retouched various passages of the score on numerous occasions in subsequent years. This – legitimate – criticism would be in keeping with the pronounced tendency, since the late nineteenth century, to give the composer of an opera pride of place in the hierarchy of authors and the last word when it comes to arbitration. Today, when faced with a revival of an old opera, commentators are always ready to take exception to outright cuts or even alterations in musical passages, while paying little heed to rewritten dialogue or the use of sets that contradict the libretto. Are the authors of that libretto not entitled to a similar degree of respect?