Le voyage dans la lune (operetta) but due to the need to raise the necessary money he did not take up the project. Eventually Albert Vizentini, the new directeur of the Gaîté, took up the idea, and Offenbach's contribution was limited to that of composer. Albert Vanloo and Eugène Leterrier, in association with Arnold Mortier (columnist at Figaro), wrote the libretto. They were hoping for a repeat of the success of the novels of Jules Verne (another, the novel "Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours", had been adapted for the stage at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin by Verne himself in 1874) and the
Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi financial reasons, and was merged with the "Chapelle Royale", then responsible solely for religious festivities. The five-part instrumentation of the "Vingt-quatre Violons" consisted of the following string instruments: The three middle parts were played by violas of identical tuning, but different sizes (body lengths 37.5 cm, 45 cm and 52.5 cm), resulting in different timbres and volumes. The basses de violon were tuned a whole step lower than a modern cello but were roughly the same size and shape. The group could be further augmented by the addition of violones doubling the basses de violon. Sometimes a bass viol could