Le roi Carotte
Le roi Carotte is a four-act opéra-bouffe-féerie by Jacques Offenbach with a libretto by Victorien Sardou, based on E. T. A. Hoffmann. It lampoons Bonapartists, monarchists and republicans, and its staging calls for lavish costumes, many locations and numerous scene changes. The Paris premiere was at Théâtre de la Gaîté on 15 January 1872. The first run lasted 195 performances, paying about 3,000 francs a day and introducing Anna Judic in a leading role. It was staged in London (1872), Vienna (1876), and the United States, with a New York premiere on 26 August 1872 and Offenbach making additions for American audiences. The run continued into autumn.
After a few small-scale performances in 2007, the Opéra de Lyon revived it in December 2015 in a Laurent Pelly production, with Christophe Mortagne as Carotte, Julie Boulianne as Robin-Luron, Yann Beuron as Fridolin and Antoinette Dennenfeld conducting Victor Aviat. The production was broadcast and widely praised, and it won Best Rediscovered Work at the International Opera Awards in 2016. It has since been staged in France and abroad, including a German translation at Staatsoper Hannover in 2019 and performances at the Volksoper Vienna in 2019–2020.
The libretto is in three acts. The story begins at sunset in a near-bankrupt kingdom, where King Fridolin XXIV, disguised as a student, plans to marry Cunégonde for money. A rival sorcerer, King Carotte, arrives with a court of dancing vegetables, and the witch Coloquinte pulls strings behind the scenes. Fridolin and friends embark on a magical quest, including a journey to Pompeii to find an enchanted ring, to defeat Carotte. After disguises, uprisings, and tricks, Carotte is overthrown and Fridolin returns to the throne, marrying Rosée du soir as the people rejoice.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:31 (CET).