Mademoiselle Fifi

Mademoiselle Fifi may refer to:

See also

Mademoiselle Fifi (opera)

Mademoiselle Fifi (Мадмуазель Фифи in Cyrillic; Madmuazel' Fifi in transliteration) is an opera in one act, composed by César Cui during 1902-1903. The libretto was adapted by the composer from the short story Mademoiselle Fifi (1882) by Guy de Maupassant and the dramatized version Mlle Fifi (1896) by Oscar Méténier.

The opera was premiered on 4 November 1903 (Old Style) at the Hermitage Theatre by the Moscow Private Opera. During its performing history it was also known under the title Женщина из Руана [Ženščina iz Ruana) = The Woman from Rouen]. The opera was widely performed in Imperial Russia and had special significance during World War I, largely because of its patriotic connotations in the struggle against Germany. Despite this success and an adaptation produced during World War II, this opera seems not to have remained in the standard operatic repertoire afterwards in Russia and not to have been performed in the West.

In the music for the opera Cui borrows some French and German tunes, including the tune of the refrain from "Die Wacht am Rhein" for the German soldiers.

Mademoiselle Fifi (dancer)

Mary Elizabeth Dawson, née Elizabeth Buzby and better known as Mademoiselle Fifi (February 7, 1890 – July 21, 1982), was a dancer whose onstage performance at Winter Garden Theatre on the night of April 20, 1925 was memorialized in The Night They Raided Minsky's. A Philadelphia native, her given name was Mary Dawson. Her mother was a devout Catholic and her father was a Quaker who worked as a policeman.

On the evening of April 20, Mademoiselle Fifi wore a skintight black net from her toe tips to her bra. As the orchestra played a medley of Puccini, ragtime music, and Gaite' Parisienne by Offenbach, she pulled one of her straps from her shoulder and then removed her bra. Mademoiselle Fifi concluded her strip act that evening bare chested. She was arrested by John Sumner, the secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Fond of classic subjects, Mademoiselle Fifi performed The Dance of the September Morn. She also did an oriental shimmy with a live garter snake.