* April 30 – Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande is premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, with André Messager conducting.

He is especially associated with Francis Poulenc, giving the premiere of his opera La voix humaine at the Opéra-Comique in 1959 and his Sept répons des ténèbres in 1963.

Today the company's official name is Théâtre national de l ' Opéra-Comique, and its theatre, with a capacity of around 1, 248 seats, sometimes referred to as the Salle Favart ( the third on this site ), is located in Place Boïeldieu, in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, not far from the Palais Garnier, one of the theatres of the Paris Opéra.

Associated with the Paris theatre of the same name, the Opéra-Comique, opéra comique is not always comic or light in nature — indeed, Carmen, perhaps the most famous opéra comique, is a tragedy.

After a year at the Opéra-Comique, she played in several companies, including that of Marshal Saxe, who is said to have been not insensible to her charms.

Auguste Bouquet: Jean-Gaspard Deburau, c. 1830. When, in 1762, a great fire destroyed the Foire Saint-Germain and the new Comédie-Italienne claimed the fairs ’ stage-offerings ( now known collectively as the Opéra-Comique ) as their own, new enterprises began to attract the Parisian public, as little theaters sprang up along the now-defunct Boulevard du Temple.

The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, on 3 March 1875, and was not at first particularly successful ; its initial run extended to 36 performances.

The capital's two main state-funded opera houses — the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique — followed conservative repertoires which restricted opportunities for young native talent.

When artistic life in Paris resumed after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 – 71, Bizet found wider opportunities for the performance of his works ; his one-act opera Djamileh opened at the Opéra-Comique in May 1872.

The French premiere of the opera was presented by the Opéra-Comique on 13 June 1898 at the Théâtre des Nations.

La bohème continued to gain international popularity throughout the early 20th century and the Opéra-Comique alone had already presented the opera one hundred times by 1903.

On his return to Paris, the recently completed La damnation de Faust was premiered at the Opéra-Comique, but after two performances, the run was discontinued and the work was a popular failure ( perhaps owing to its halfway status between opera and cantata ), despite receiving generally favourable critical reviews.

The two state-subsidised opera houses, the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique, each presented traditional repertoires that tended to stifle and frustrate new homegrown talent ; only eight of the 54 Prix de Rome laureates between 1830 and 1860 had had works staged at the Opéra.

Bizet's other completed works in 1871 were the piano duet entitled Jeux d ' enfants, and a one-act opera, Djamileh, which opened at the Opéra-Comique in May 1872.

He then moved to Paris, presenting Le puits d ' amour ( 1843 ) in early 1843, followed by his opera based on Les quatre fils Aymon ( 1844 ) for the Opéra-Comique ( also popular in German-speaking countries for many years as Die Vier Haimonskinder ) and L ' étoile de Seville ( 1845 ) for the Opéra.

* November 17-Ambroise Thomas's opera Mignon debuts in Paris at the Opéra-Comique.

He became known for his beautiful sound, and became the saxophone soloist in the Garde, which caused him to be asked to play in concerts with orchestras and also in the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique ( although almost exclusively for Massenet's Werther, as this was the only opera in the repertoire that called for an orchestral saxophone ).

When Messager became chief conductor of the Opéra-Comique theatre in 1898, his enthusiastic recommendations prompted Albert Carré, the head of the opera house, to visit Debussy and hear the work played on the piano at two sessions, in May 1898 and April 1901.

On the strength of this, Carré accepted the work for the Opéra-Comique and on 3 May 1901 gave Debussy a written promise to perform the opera the following season.

Its first performance at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, 6 December 1846, did not meet with critical acclaim, perhaps due to its halfway status between opera and cantata ; the public was apathetic, and two performances ( and a cancelled third ) rendered a financial setback for Berlioz: " Nothing in my career as an artist wounded me more deeply than this unexpected indifference ", he remembered.

The opera was a mainstay of the Opéra-Comique in Paris, reaching its 1, 000th performance there in 1919, its 1, 500th in 1931 and 2, 000th in 1952.

Werther entered the repertoire at the Opéra-Comique in 1903 in a production supervised by Albert Carré, and over the next half-century the opera was performed over 1, 100 times there, Léon Beyle becoming a distinguished interpreter of Werther.

His first opera, La grand ' tante, was a one-act production at the Opéra-Comique in 1867.

The first performances of the opera in France took place at the Opéra-Comique in 1890.

After his death, Daussoigne-Méhul notably completed his unfinished opera Valentine de Milan which premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1822.

The opera was first performed in a public venue, without the ' Giulietta ' act, at the Opéra-Comique on 10 February 1881.

The opera reached its hundredth performance at the Salle Favart on the 15 December 1881, but the fire at the Opéra-Comique in 1887 destroyed the orchestral parts, and it was not seen again in Paris until 1893 at the Salle de la Renaissance du Théâtre-Lyrique when it received 20 performances.

The musicians and others associated with the Opéra-Comique have made important contributions to operatic history and tradition in France, and to French opera.

Early in 1960, Kelly, an ardent Francophile and fluent French speaker, was invited by A. M. Julien, the general administrator of the Paris Opéra and Opéra-Comique, to select his own material and create a modern ballet for the company, the first time an American had received such an assignment.

Finding the management of Paris's Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, in 1855 he leased a small theatre in the Champs-Élysées.

However, the Paris Opéra-Comique company rejected it.

In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the Théâtre-Italien up to about 1793, when it again became most commonly known as the Opéra-Comique.

Mainstays of the repertory at the Opéra-Comique during its history have included the following works which have each been performed more than 1, 000 times by the company: Cavalleria Rusticana, Le chalet, La dame blanche, Le domino noir, La fille du régiment, Lakmé, Manon, Mignon, Les noces de Jeannette, Le pré aux clercs, Tosca, La bohème, Werther and Carmen, the last having been performed more than 2, 500 times.

The company was renamed to Opéra-Comique by an edict of the king in 1780, although the names Comédie-Italienne and Théâtre Italien were still used frequently by the press and public for many years thereafter.

Jacques Offenbach wrote an opéra comique called Robinson Crusoé which was first performed at the Opéra-Comique, Salle Favart on 23 November 1867.

Bizet also had to counter further attempts at the Opéra-Comique to modify parts of the action which they deemed improper.

After a special performance of Carmen at the Opéra-Comique that night, the press which had almost universally condemned the piece three months earlier now declared Bizet a master.

Interest was further revived by the famous production which debuted at the Opéra-Comique on 22 May 1942 under the baton of Roger Desormière with Jacques Jansen and Irène Joachim in the title roles.

In 1955 Ibert was appointed administrator of the Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux, which ran both the Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique.

She became a star of the Comédie Italienne ( which became the Opéra-Comique ), where she created over 60 roles.

Larger scale works include 3 masses ( two with organ, one with orchestra ), three symphonies, chamber music, and a three-act opera Les Recruteurs which was produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1861.

By the 19th century, opéra comique often meant little more than works with spoken dialogue performed at the Opéra-Comique theatre, as opposed to works with recitative which appeared at the Paris Opéra.

In 1793, the name of the Comédie-Italienne was changed to the Opéra-Comique, but it no longer had a monopoly on performing operas with spoken dialogue and faced serious rivalry from the Théâtre Feydeau, which also produced works in the opéra comique style.

As funds ran out, Lamoureux took up posts at the Opéra-Comique ( 1876 ) and the Opéra ( 1877-79 ) which were short-lived, due to Lamoureux's tendency to quarrel over their productions.

The operetta's first major revival was on 10 April 1941 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris under Nazi occupation, with Fanély Revoil, René Hérent, Lillie Grandval and André Balbon, at which time highlights were recorded, conducted by Roger Désormière ; this production was revived in December 1946 with Revoil and Payen.