Les Cloches de Corneville (1877) was a blockbuster three-act French opéra-comique with music by Robert Planquette, libretto by Louis Clairville and Charles Gabet. The first English production opened in London in 1878 with a libretto by Henry Brougham Farnie and Robert Reece.
This transcription is of George and Augustus Moore’s English lyrics-only rehearsal libretto. Spoken dialogue is mostly absent; musical numbers are listed by number and title.
The unique physical copy is at Arizona State University Library. According to Edwin Gilcher, the Moore libretto was:
Printed March 1883. Probably printed for use by the cast in a production at the Folies Dramatiques (Novelty Theatre renamed), London, 29 March 1883, with “Libretto by Messrs. Claude Templar and George and Augustus Moore,” which ran for only ten days, according to J. M. Glover’s letter, “George Moore as Librettist,” in the Observer, 8 April 1923.
French and English editions of Les Cloches de Corneville are freely available for comparison on Internet Archive.
Les Cloches de Corneville (AI)
Les Cloches de Corneville (AI) is a PDF of the first edition that may be uploaded to AI applications such as Notebook LM for guided analysis and interpretation.
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