Created on October 12, 1867, V'lan dans l'œil - or L'œil punctured - marks Hervé's first assertive triumph. Compliments flow: "Hervé is more than a café-concert composer, he is indeed a musician, and it must be said how much science and talent there is in his orchestration ..." The duet between Dindonnette and Alexandrivore , in the first act, is musically an opera page that Hervé suddenly interrupts to rush you into a frenzied gallop ... Then he makes you smile with "The Polonaise and the Swallow", a real villanelle which might remotely evoke that of the Summer nightsby Hector Berlioz… Let us once again highlight the unspeakable “Legend of the atmospheric lobster”, sung in the language of Oc. In addition to Hervé's satirical finesse, there is also dexterity in choral writing, such as the essential “Choir des chasseurs”. He parodies moreover that, so famous, of Weber's Freischütz , whose intrigue of V'lan in the eye appears, at times, a real pastiche.