Has anyone ever wondered what happened to Rodolfo after Mimi’s death? To be honest, I hadn’t. Until I came across him in Reynaldo Hahn’s operetta Ciboulette.

Rodolfo has renounced love and poetry, joined the Commune and works under the name Duparquet as a market supervisor at Les Halles in Paris. Like a good fairy, he helps a vegetable seller to find the love of her life: the rather dull but young and very rich Antonin de Mourmelon, who is himself suffering from heartbreak because his beloved has exchanged him for a macho and virile hussar.

In this direction by Michel Fau, the first act of Ciboulette is shrouded in shades of black-grey-white and it exudes an atmosphere of the early years of cinema. It is only with the arrival of Ciboulette that colour also enters the story. The effect is grand: it is as if the invisible, drab curtain behind which the fairy colours have been hiding, is pushed aside.

Jean-François LapoinCoiste is irresistible as Duparquet. Effortlessly he switches from hilarious dialogues and an upbeat duet with Ciboulette (very catchy “Nous avons fait un beau voyage”)

to the very moving sung “C’est tout ce qui me reste d’elle”, in which he reminisces about Mimi. And, am I mistaken or do I hear there, softly and far away in the background, snatches of Puccini’s music?

Julien Behr’s tenor (Antonin de Mourmelon) is not particularly beautiful, he is also a bit stiff, but it suits the role.

Eva Ganizate is a delightful grisette Zénobie and Bernadette Lafont provides some extra fun with her role of Madame Pingret.

Ciboulette is sung by young French soprano Julie Fuchs. Her beautiful, spring-like appearance and her light, agile voice make her an exemplary “happy-go-lucky” girl who does not yet know what she wants until she meets the real thing.

At the end, we get a real sing-along that sticks into your ears even if you don’t know the operetta or even the language!

Suffering from the winter blues? Hounded, stressed, abandoned by a loved one? Buy the DVD and be cheered up! What a feast!

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