La Princesse de Trébizonde: Synopsis

Act I A town square

At the fair, two attractions compete for business –a lottery, with a splendid castle as the top prize, and Cabriolo’s circus. His travelling players include his sister Paola, his two daughters Régina and Zanetta, and Trémolini, who gave up his old job as a butler to become a circus performer, out of love for Régina. Cabriolo's circus boasts many acts, but his main attraction is an extraordinary waxworks collection. His daughter Zanetta has been dusting the wax figures, and she accidentally breaks the nose off the showpiece, the magnificent Princess of Trebizond. To salvage the show, Zanetta offers to take the place of the waxwork and wear the Princess’s costume.

Cabriolo's takings that day are meagre – just a few coins so far, plus one of the lottery tickets (number 1313), which has been sneakily dropped into the cash box by Prince Raphaël, who is visiting the town fair with his tutor Sparadrap. The young Prince enters the waxworks tent and promptly falls madly in love with the figure of the Princess of Trebizond.

The lottery draw takes place – and the winning ticket is number 1313! Cabriolo and his family find themselves the new ennobled owners of a superb castle.

Act II Cabriolo’s castle – six months later

Cabriolo and his family are installed in their new castle. Time drags by, and they mope around all day, bored. They miss terribly their old life in the circus.

In the distance, a deer hunt can be heard coming closer. It is Prince Raphaël, who is making a detour to Cabriolo's castle in search of his new love, the Princess of Trebizond. Instead, he discovers Zanetta, and realises that his beloved wax princess is actually alive: he falls even more in love. Raphaël's tutor Sparadrap comes in, and Zanetta runs away. The Prince's father, Casimir, is a mad despot who has a nasty habit of breaking canes on the backs of his entourage. He shows kindness only to his son Raphaël, and panders to his every whim. Raphaël's latest desire is to take the waxwork figure of the Princess of Trebizond away with him. Casimir agrees to buy not only the Princess for his son, but the entire waxwork collection, and he appoints Cabriolo curator of his museum. Casimir naively believes he has found a healthy distraction to occupy his son and, most importantly, to keep him away from women.

Act III Casimir’s palace

Casimir has installed the waxwork collection in his own castle, together with his new museum curator Cabriolo (now Baron Cascatella) and Cabriolo's whole family –including Zanetta as the fake waxwork Princess. The exhibits are guarded by six pages, who find their work, watching over lifeless wax figures all day, utterly ridiculous. They joke about the foolish young Prince Raphaël being in love with a doll.

As well as Raphaël and Zanetta, two other couples are falling in love - Zanetta's sister Régina with Trémolini, and their aunt Paola with the tutor Sparadrap. Night falls, and the couples make their trysts by moonlight. Prince Raphaël has feigned a toothache to avoid going on his father's torchlit hunt, and he organises a secret banquet. The six pages rejoice when Raphaël finally reveals the true story of his wax 'Princess'.

The carousing and dancing are brutally interrupted by the return of Casimir, who is furious. Everyone is unmasked, including the false Princess of Trebizond. The truth is out. Raphaël asks his father to forgive him, and asks to marry Zanetta. Not only does Casimir consent, but we learn that he himself was once also married to an acrobat, the famous Steel Feather –Paola’s sister. All’s well that ends well, and everyone celebrates with a triple wedding.

Synopsis by Jean-Christophe Keck English translation by Ros Schwartz