Le testament de la tante Caroline

'''Le testament de la tante Caroline''' (Aunt Caroline's Will) is an opéra bouffe or operetta by composer Albert Roussel and librettist Nino (pseudonym of Michel Veber). The original production was in the Czech language and in three acts, but the work was later revised into a one act operetta in the French language. The operetta tells the story of a family who is caught in a difficult set of circumstances surrounding the contents of a will and th... more

'''Le testament de la tante Caroline''' (Aunt Caroline's Will) is an opéra bouffe or operetta by composer Albert Roussel and librettist Nino (pseudonym of Michel Veber). The original production was in the Czech language and in three acts, but the work was later revised into a one act operetta in the French language. The operetta tells the story of a family who is caught in a difficult set of circumstances surrounding the contents of a will and the dispersal of a vast fortune. The work premiered in Olomouc on 14 November 1936. Le testament de la tante Caroline was composed by Roussel in 1932-1933. The comic operetta was a departure from his earlier works which were all of a serious nature. Roussel acknowledged that the works of composers Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert had influenced him to pursue writing a comic opera as they had been successful both critically and financially. He described the operetta as "a sort of opérette-bouffe whose characters are almost entirely grotesque and... less