Geneviève de Brabant
Geneviève de Brabant is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, by Jacques Offenbach, first performed in Paris in 1859. The plot is based on the medieval legend of Genevieve of Brabant. For the 1867 version two additional characters, men-at-arms, were added to Act 2 and given a comic duet, in English-speaking countries widely known as the "Gendarmes' Duet" or the "bold gendarmes", from H. B. Farnie's English adaptation. As well as being a popular performance piece, it formed the basis for the U.S. "Marines' Hymn". Performance history The two-act French libretto was written by Louis-Adolphe Jaime and Étienne Tréfeu, and the opera was first staged at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris, on 19 November 1859. A new three-act version (in which the "Gendarmes' Duet" first appeared), revised by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, was first given at the Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs, Paris, on 26 December 1867. An expanded five-act version was devised for a production at the Théâtre de la Gaîté on 25 February 1875. A Paris revival in 1908 at the Théâtre des Variétés with Geneviève Vix in the title role ran for 58 nights. Geneviève de Brabant was first performed in Vienna (Die schöne Magellone) and Berlin in 1861 and Brussels and