Many people know the Donkey duet (‘Trot here and there’) from Véronique, an opéra comique staged at the Bouffes-Parisiens in December 1898; but few nowadays could hum a tune from Messager’s previous success at the same theatre a year earlier. The plot of The Little Michus hinges on a question of identity: which of two girls brought up as twin sisters is the daughter of a general, and which is the child of the Michus, humble shopkeepers from Les Halles.

Although the denouement is different there’s an echo here of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, as Messager probably spotted when he received the libretto: he himself had composed an operetta, Mirette, for D’Oyly Carte and the Savoy Theatre in 1894. Blanche-Marie and Marie-Blanche are inseparable: they are distressed when told that the general wishes his daughter to marry one of his officers, but the situation becomes more complicated when it turns out that the officer is Gaston, whom they both fancy. And then there is Aristide, the Michus’ shop assistant, who loves both girls and can’t decide which one he wants. The girls are paired off at first with the wrong suitors, but the resourceful Marie-Blanche dresses her sister up as a lady: the result is that Blanche-Marie looks exactly a portrait of the general’s late wife, so it’s quite clear who is who.

The hit number was ‘Blanche-Marie et Marie-Blanche’, the duet following the opening chorus, which is reprised at the very end. But there are many other examples of wit and charm, such as the fizzing quartet ‘Entre la! Mais pourquoi?’ that recalls ‘Nous avons en tête une affaire’ in Carmen. Once in a while, Messager will do something both simple and audacious: you might well catch your breath at the harmonic sideslip in the refrain of ‘Vois-tu, je m’en veux’ in Act 3. And the tenderness of ‘Rassurez-vous, monsieur Gaston’, when Blanche-Marie and Gaston are each concealing their true feelings, will touch your heart.

There are no great voices to be heard in the Compagnie des Brigands but the performance (from a staging in Nantes) comes across with splendid vigour. The ‘sisters’ are well contrasted, Violette Polchi’s bright soprano offset by the rich mezzo of Anne-Aurore Cochet. Philippe Estèphe is a very personable Gaston, and Boris Grappe makes a strong impression as General des Ifs, who is evidently related to General Boum from Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein. The chorus and orchestra under Pierre Dumoussaud are excellent. This fine offering in Palazzetto Bru Zane’s CD-cum-book series of French operas includes an exemplary translation of the libretto and articles by Charles Johnston.