La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
opéra bouffe composed by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein) is an opéra bouffe (a form of operetta), in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The story is a satirical critique of unthinking militarism and concerns a spoiled and tyrannical young Grand Duchess who learns that she cannot always get her way.
The opera premiered in Paris in 1867 and starred Hortense Schneider in the title role. Thereafter, it was heard in New York, London and elsewhere, and it is still performed and recorded.
Background
Offenbach's career was at its height in the 1860s with the premieres of some of his most popular and enduring works, such as La Belle Hélène (1864) and La Vie parisienne (1866). With the original production of the latter still running, Offenbach and his librettists hurried to prepare a new opera, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, to play during the Paris Exposition (Exposition universelle) of 1867. Offenbach assisted Meilhac and Halévy in shaping the libretto. They were eager to ensure a hit, and so they engaged the immensely popular Hortense Schneider, who had created the title role in La Belle Hélène, among other Offenbach roles, paying her the extraordinarily rich monthly sum of 4,500 francs. Schneider, in addition to her vocal gifts, was well able to portray the commanding and saucy character of the Grand Duchess, which parodied Catherine the Great.
The April 1867 premiere was an immediate hit, and a parade of European royalty, drawn to Paris by the Exposition, attended performances of the operetta.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein” as opéra bouffe composed by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as opéra bouffe composed by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1213194. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1864 and 1866.
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This entry incorporates text from “La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.