Dubois is wonderful in the titlerole. His tenor, with its slight flutter and exquisite head notes, makes for an appealing performance as the lovelorn youngster...Langrée coaxes lovely, affectionate playing from the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, shaping Messager’s melodies with great care.

The score is charmingly easy on the ear, with enough piquancy to avoid foursquare blandness, while Messager’s characterization of its five major roles is sharp but sympathetic..Naxos’s video release does this neglected masterwork good service...Dubois sings the duped mooncalf with true refinement...His is a movingly calibrated performance, matched by Anne-Catherine Gillet’s brew of flirtatious hypocrisy, guilt and frank sexuality as the (anti-?)heroine.