William CHAUMET (1842-1903). Autograph musical manuscript signed, Mamzelle Pioupiou, [1889]; 245 oblong pages in-fol. in 10 titled folders. Orchestral score of this music for Alexandre Bisson's (1848-1912) military play in 5 acts and 8 tableaux, premiered at the Porte-Saint-Martin theater on May 31, 1889, with Félicia Mallet in the title role. The play begins in Falaise where Papillon, an unsuccessful acrobat, becomes the father of a girl named Marcelle, while the pharmacist Maloisel has the same day a boy named Camille; but the employee of the town hall is mistaken and reverses the sexes. Twenty years later, when Papillon has left Falaise to seek his fortune in Tunisia, a gendarme comes to fetch Marcelle Papillon for service; although she could protest about her sex, she allows herself to be taken, to follow her lover Camille Maloisel who has enlisted. In Tunisia, Marcelle (Mamzelle Pioupiou) rescues her father from the clutches of a mistress; she finds her own mother, who had been kidnapped and transported to the harem, takes part in the capture of Sfax, and ends up marrying Camille. We have the following numbers, signed by William Chauvet with his initials: N°1 Ouverture (32 p.); 1st tableau: La baraque des saltimbanques; 2nd tableau: L'audience du Kadi, preceded by an intermission; 3rd tableau: Le grand cirque Papillon, preceded by an intermission; act II, 3rd tableau, scene v, Duetto Laïde-Trumeau: tableau V, La première faction; 6th tableau, Le camp français, beginning with an intermission with a " Marche française ", then Marcelle's " Chanson de route " : " Petit pioupiou "...; act III, 1st tableau, Chez les Kroumirs; 7th and 8th tableaux, Le Harem de Papillon (ballet), then La prise de Sfax; act V, 8th tableau, Prière arabe et Marseillaise (chorus).