Act 2
5th scene: The moon
Hearing mysterious voices, we see a town with strange architecture.
6th scene: The arrival
The "sélénites" (moon-dwellers) fearfully observe a black point in the sky, and one asks another if it may be something sent by the "terriens" (Earth-people) to exterminate them. Cosmos, king of the moon, and his counsellor Cactus calm their people - science has proved that the Earth is uninhabited. With a horrendous crash, the shell crash-lands on a house and Vlan, Caprice and Microscope get out, as the "sélénites" hide. The 3 men get observe what seem a desolate planet, and their mood blackens, since only apples remain for provisions. Some "sélénites" get up, and Cosmos reappears to ask the "terriens" where they have come from. Their insolent reply makes him condemn them to prison, but Cosmos's wife Popotte and daughter Fantasia arrive. It is Fantasia's birthday, and she asks her father to take pity on the prisoners and free them as her birthday present. Cosmos accepts and proposes that the "terriens" visit his palace.
7th scene: The glass palace
Cosmos and Cactus show Vlan, Caprice and Microscope the moon's civil service. On the moon, working for the king is not a happy job and if there are no candidates the fattest person is picked.
8th scene: The mother-of-pearl galleries
Caprice courts Fantasia, but she does not understand, not knowing what love is, since it does not exist on the moon other than as a disease - when one wants to have a child, one asks oneself if there is an area of commerce in which it can prosper.
9th scene: The park
Caprice, despairing of princess Fantasia and her inability to love him, eats an apple. The princess, astonished by his absence, goes to look for him. Attracted by this fruit (unknown to her), she tastes it. Calling it a "charming gift that she formerly ate on the Earth", she immediately falls in love with Caprice, sending the palace into an uproar.
10th scene: The roaming shadows
11th scene: Cosmos's gardens
Grand ballet of the Chimères.
Read more about this topic: Le Voyage Dans La Lune (operetta), Synopsis
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“Even the simple act that we call “going to visit a person of our acquaintance” is in part an intellectual act. We fill the physical appearance of the person we see with all the notions we have about him, and in the totality of our impressions about him, these notions play the most important role.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)