La Périchole

La Périchole is an opéra bouffe[1] in three acts by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)[2], with a French libretto by Henri Meilhac (1830-1897)[3] and Ludovic Halévy (1834-1908)[4].

The original text

The story concerns two impoverished Peruvian street-singers, known as "Périchole" and "Piquillo", too poor to afford a marriage license, and a lecherous viceroy, Don Andrès de Ribeira, who wishes to make "La Périchole" his mistress.

The libretto was based on a one act play Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement[5] by Prosper Merimee (1803-1870)[6], written in the 1829 and revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français.

Offenbach's opera was first performed, in a two-act version, on 6 October 1868 at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris. The three-act version opened at the same theater on 25 April 1874 and was revived there in 1877 with a new cast.

It soon went on to become one of Offenbach’s most frequently performed operettas, being performed around the globe. For example, it was first seen in Brussels on 5 December 1868, at Pike's Opera House, New York, on 4 January 1869, in Vienna on 9 January 1869, in Stockholm on 6 February 1869, and in London on 27 June 1870 at the Princess's Theatre.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1887: Performed as La Périchole by the Searelle Opera Company in the Opera House, Cape Town, under the management of the Wheeler Brothers, forming part of a repertoire of more than 14 operatic works over a period of eight months.

1975 and 1977: Performed by the CAPAB Opera Company , with designs by Bruno Santini

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_P%C3%A9richole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ra_bouffe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Offenbach

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Meilhac

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovic_Hal%C3%A9vy

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Carrosse_du_Saint-Sacrement

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosper_M%C3%A9rim%C3%A9e

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.203-205

Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.

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