Une Demi-heure de caprice

Une Demi-heure de caprice is a divertissement in a single act with a libretto and choreography by Pierre-Gabriel Gardel. The libretto offers no indication of the composer who supplied the music, and the extant score in manuscript form bears no signature. It had its world premiere at Saint-Cloud in 1804, and it was billed for the first time in Paris at the Opéra on 23 October of this same year. The curtain rises on the work to disclose “an Asiatic salon.” Melzi is playing her guitar in her…