more loosely based on the fables have included Mouse in Manhattan (1945) and The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale (HBO 1993), which eventually led to the television series The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures. In the UK, Vicky Ireland dramatised the fable for Merseyside Young People's Theatre in 1987. The 80-minute play has since been acted in the US, South Africa and New Zealand. It features William Boot, a country mouse bored with rural life at his grandmother's house, who is visited by his city cousin and learns that he has inherited Tallyhoe Lodge in London. They leave to run a gauntlet of adventures, from which William returns to settle gratefully in his peaceful country retreat. Among musical interpretations, there have been the following: Louis-Nicolas Clérambault set words based on La Fontaine's fable in the 1730s Jacques Offenbach included it in Six Fables de La Fontaine (1842) for soprano and small orchestra Benjamin Godard, the last of his Six Fables de La Fontaine (op. 17 1872/9) Auguste Moutin (1821–1900) set it as a song in 1876. Ernest Reyer set La Fontaine's fable for his own performance Jean-René Quignard for 2 children's voices Isabelle Aboulker's setting of La Fontaine's words is on her composite CD Les Fables Enchantées (1979) Ida Gotkovsky, the third fable in her Hommage à Jean de La Fontaine for choir and orchestra, commissioned for the tercentenary of La Fontaine's death (1995) Claude Ballif, the fourth of his Chansonettes : 5 Fables de La Fontaine for small mixed choir (Op.72, Nº1 1995) Debra Kaye set Richard Scrafton Sharpe's lyric version of the fable for mezzo-soprano and piano in 1998. She describes this as 'a mini-opera' that combines the simplicity of folk music and operatic styles. Dominique Rebaud choreographed the story in Annie Sellem's dance production of Les Fables à La Fontaine in 2004. It is set as a duo which contrasts the routines of contemporary dance and hip-hop. This segment also figures among the four included in the film of the same title made by Marie-Hélène Rebois in 2004. References Further reading External links Greek versions and European illustrations Book illustrations from the 15th to the 20th centuries online Aesop's Fables Fictional mice and rats Literary duos La Fontaine's Fables English-language idioms ATU 100-149