Le Laboureur chinois

Le Laboureur chinois was billed as an opera in a single act with words by Henri-Montan Berton and a score upon which Deschamps, Després, and Morel de Chédeville collaborated and in which selections from Haydn and Mozart were included. Lachnith was credited with arranging the music, and Milon did the choreography. This pastiche was popular, and its brevity allowed it to be used as a companion piece for longer compositions. It had its premiere at the Imperial Academy of Music on 5 February 1813…