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LA PÉRICHOLE An opéra-bouffe in Three Acts by
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Watch a short video of scenes from the performance |
| ABOUT THE OPERA During the second empire, Offenbach’s new creation operetta, or “opera bouffe”, took Paris by storm. His best works abound with satire, wit, dance, and above all a procession of memorable melodies. After the huge success of Orpheus in the Underworld and La Belle Helene, both based on mythological subjects, in 1868 Offenbach chose to set his new operetta, La Périchole, in far-off Lima. The action takes place in Lima, Peru, during the time of Spanish rule in the eighteenth century. Although Peru may be a remote location, for his Paris audience the characters and the situations were instantly recognizable. We meet two street singers, La Périchole and Piquillo, who become involved in the amorous adventures of the Spanish Viceroy and his court. Although the plot has elements of farce and satire, the story also contains much romance and sentiment. Yet above all it was Offenbach’s wonderful melodies that the Paris audience adored. |
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Cast |
Covers | |||||
| La Périchole | A street singer | mezzo-soprano | Olivia Ray | Helen Evora | ||
| Guadalena |
| soprano | Claire McKenna | Claire Wright* | ||
| Berginella | soprano | Lisa Swayne | Denise Miles* | |||
| Mastrilla | mezzo-soprano | Helen Evora | Alyson Denza* | |||
| Piquillo | A street singer, La Périchole's partner | tenor | Philip O’Brien | Tom Bullard | ||
| Don Andres de Ribeira | The Viceroy | baritone | Dominic Barrand | Graham Case | ||
| Don Pedro de Hinoyosa | Governor of Lima | baritone | Sam Queen | Nikos Painezis | ||
| Count Panatellas | First Gentleman of the Bedchamber | tenor | Stuart Haycock | Liam Hook* | ||
| Manuelita |
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soprano | Claire McKenna | Alyson Denza* | ||
| Frasquinella | soprano | Lisa Swayne | Catherine Garner* | |||
| Brambilla | soprano | Helen Evora | Patricia Lambert* | |||
| 1st Notary | tenor | Anthony Ramsden* | ||||
| 2nd Notary | baritone | Paul Ives* | ||||
| Tarapote | Major-Domo to the Viceroy | spoken role | David Swayne* | |||
| Marquis de Santarem | An old Prisoner | spoken role | John Braithwaite* | |||
| *denotes chorus member | ||||||
Chorus of Peruvians, Indians, Spaniards, Maids-of-Honour, Courtiers, Soldiers, Guards, etc.
| Sopranos: | Alyson Denza, Catherine Garner, Denise Miles, Isobel Rooth, Jenny Short, Anjie Swayne, Jane Wiltshire, Claire Wright |
| Altos: | Dorothee Burton, Sally Fentiman, Patricia Lambert, Rosemary Mawer, Ruth McLeod, Beryl Northam |
| Tenors: | Liam Hook, Johan Kütt, Bertie Mawer, Anthony Ramsden |
| Basses: | John Braithwaite, Andrew Kettle, Paul Ives, Clive Perry, David Swayne |
| Conductor: | Tom Higgins Opera South Director of Music |
| Repetiteurs: | Judith Flint, Julia Kennard |
| Stage Director: | Ian Gledhill |
| Artistic Director, Set Design: | John Braithwaite |
| Lighting Director: | Kevin J Roach |
| Casting Director: | Michael Hartnall |
| Production Manager: | Anjie Swayne |
| Stage Manager: | Nick Westcote-White |
| (Stage Management): | Robert Hill, Trevor Wiltshire, John Turner |
| Properties: | Pat Ives |
| Costume Design & Production: | Carol Stevenson |
| Dressers: | Josephine Lavis, Pat Ives, Antonia Kent |
| Make-up: | Judith Forde, assisted by Josephine Lavis |
| Photographs & Recording: | Guy Davenport, Peter Sillick |
| Chorus Manager: | David Swayne |
| Operations — Marketing, Publicity & Programme: | Carolann Martys chairman, Michael Barnes marketing, Paul Ives programme design, Bertie Mawer, Rosemary Mawer patrons & friends, Denise Miles office manager, Isobel Rooth minutes secretary, David Swayne, Sue Wood |
| Front of House: | Jamie Jack manager, Brian Blaber, Sheila Can, Jodie Coe, Suzanne Cowan, Jenny Cretney, Pamela Depledge, Liz Garrett, Brenda Halsey, Susan Harris, Ann Hooton, Ann Jack, Katherine Laird, Pauline Lamb, Susan Lowe, Peter Massey, Jocelyn McCarthy, Sandy McCarthy, Hazel Morgan, Marie Norgren, Jean Prior, Simone Pope, Jan Sayers, Alastair Vartan, Carol Wiggins, Barbara Williams, David Williams |
Tom Higgins discusses why Offenbach, “The Mozart of the Champs Elysees”, wrote
an operetta set in Peru
Jacques Offenbach, it was once reported in America, spoke excellent
English. No mean achievement, you might think, for a German who had made
his home in Paris, although it was said he never really lost his Rheinlander
accent when speaking French. But Offenbach embodied a type of mid-19th
century European who was becoming increasingly cosmopolitan.
On the stage, this international outlook found a natural expression in the world
of operetta. The Viennese loved stories that were set in the Balkans, while
Gilbert and Sullivan went as far afield as possible with The Mikado.
Meanwhile Offenbach struck out with La Périchole, set in far flung Peru.
Never one to lose sight of a good idea, Offenbach had already given a
previous work, La vie Parisienne, the South American touch with a wealthy
Brazilian character.
Offenbach was born in 1819 in the Cologne area. His first experience of
music was on the violin, but at the age of nine he took up the ’cello, soon
becoming an acknowledged virtuoso. By the early 1830s he and his brother Julius were poor students in Paris.
Thirty years later, when his name was irrevocably linked to that city, he had metamorphosed into a
wealthy, influential French citizen and had been appointed Legion d’honneur —
an astonishing social advancement when you consider that his operettas had satirized
Second Empire Paris as much as they had entertained it.
Offenbach’s gift of melody and sure comic instinct resulted in a string of theatrical triumphs.
Dubbed “The Mozart of the Champs Elysees”, he entertained the world
once he had conquered the French capital, for it was Offenbach who made operetta
(and sometimes operetta on risqué subjects at that), an acceptable public
entertainment. That said, he was none too keen on his own daughters attending performances of his works.
Offenbach’s legendary status commenced in 1858 with the huge success of
Orpheus in the Underworld.
In the 1860s he consolidated this with big triumphs such as La belle Helene,
La vie Parisienne and La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein.
Working fast, but never losing his sure touch, he produced La Périchole in 1868.
The story of a street-singer in Peru, the operetta was based on a play by Prosper Merimée.
As might be expected, Offenbach drew heavily on Latin American dance rhythms,
including the celebrated Bolero.
The score is also liberally endowed with many waltzes — Offenbach was too good a businessman
to forget that his waltzes would sell well to the many dance orchestras of the western world.
As always, Offenbach provides music of elegance and sophistication, culminating in Périchole’s
touching Letter Song, in which she bids farewell (temporarily as it turns out), to her lover Piquillo.
Always keen to oversee every aspect of his work in the theatre, Offenbach took a special interest
in the size of his orchestra. He almost certainly orchestrated all his scores himself
and did not hesitate to change the number of musicians in the pit to fit the size of a theatre.
Accordingly, I have made an orchestral reduction of this score to 21 players. This reduction retains the
essential features of Offenbach’s glittering and charming score, while being a more appropriate sized
orchestra for our venue in Haslemere.
© Tom Higgins 2010
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