La Périchole (Offenbach)

Overview

La Périchole is an opéra-bouffe by Jacques Offenbach to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on Prosper Mérimée's one-act play Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement. It was first given in two acts at the Théâtre des Variétés on 6 October 1868 with Hortense Schneider in the title role (José Dupuis as Piquillo), then reworked as a three-act, four-tableau version, revived at the Variétés on 25 April 1874 (Wikipedia, "La Périchole"; Bru Zane Médiabase). The title character, a street singer in colonial Lima, is loosely based on the eighteenth-century Peruvian entertainer Micaela Villegas. The Viceroy of Peru, Don Andrès de Ribeira, is the pompous figure Marie calls "le gouverneur de Lima".

Marie and this work

• 20 July 1873, Villa Baquis, Nice. She quotes the song "Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, que les hommes sont bêtes" (007.0089).
• 17 May 1874, Paris. "Le soir aux Variétés La Périchole avec Schneider. Elle est adorable" (019.0266): the revival with Schneider then running at the Variétés, i.e. the three-act version.
• 14 April 1875, Nice. "On donne La Périchole et Les Saltimbanques" (031.0231).
• 23 April 1875. "Je pouvais bien chanter comme La Périchole" (032.0036), followed by a song fragment.
• 4 October 1876, Poltava. Fleeing the house, she quotes the viceroy: "Sans en rien souffler à personne comme le gouverneur de Lamor [sic: Lima] dans La Périchole" (066.0622; the footnote credits the libretto to Meilhac and Halévy).

Sources

• Wikipedia, "La Périchole".
• Bru Zane Médiabase (Palazzetto Bru Zane), "La Périchole".
• IMSLP, La Périchole (Offenbach, Jacques)).