La Périchole () is an opéra bouffe in three acts with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. The opera depicts the mutual love of two impoverished Peruvian street singers – too poor to afford a marriage licence – and a lecherous viceroy, Don Andrès de Ribeira, who wishes to make La Périchole his mistress. Love eventually triumphs. The story is based loosely on the play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée (1828), and the title character is based on the Peruvian entertainer Micaela Villegas.
La Perichole was first seen in a two-act version on 6 October 1868 at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris, with Hortense Schneider in the title role, José Dupuis as Piquillo and Pierre-Eugène Grenier as the Viceroy. A revised three-act version premiered at the same theatre on 25 April 1874, with the same three stars. The work is considered more sentimental than the earlier Offenbach satires, and the score is infused with Spanish and other dance styles. It was staged throughout Europe and the Americas, and is frequently revived, particularly in France. It has also been broadcast on radio and television and recorded many times.
Background Between 1855 and 1864, Offenbach collaborated with the librettist Ludovic Halévy on ten stage pieces – mostly one-act comic operas. In 1864 Halévy was joined by Henri Meilhac to write the libretto for Offenbach's La belle Hélène, followed by four more full-length pieces over the next four years, including the immensely successful La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.Lamb, Andrew. "Offenbach, Jacques (Jacob)", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, 2007 Meilhac and Halévy based their libretto for La Périchole – very loosely – on an 1828 one-act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was staged on 13 March 1850 at the Comédie-Française with Augustine Brohan as La Périchole."Mouvement dramtique", L'Événement, 19 March 1859, p. 1 It was not a great success, and although Offenbach became conductor for the Comédie-Française shortly afterwards it is not certain that he saw the production.Yon, p. 372 Another theatrical creation that pre-dates Offenbach's opéra bouffe and may have influenced the piece is a farce by Desforges and Théaulon given on 21 October 1835 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, starring Virginie Déjazet as La Périchole.Fraison, Laurent. "Genèse et analyse de la version primitive", L'Avant-Scène Opéra No 66, August 1984
The title character of La Périchole is based on Micaela Villegas, an 18th-century Peruvian entertainer and the mistress of Manuel de Amat y Juniet, Viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776. The name "La Périchole" is a French adaptation of a Spanish-language epithet by which Amat, during a quarrel, referred to Villegas as a "perra chola" – "native bitch".Traubner (2003), p. 60
Performance history
Early productions The work premiered, in a two-act version, on 6 October 1868, at the Théâtre des Variétés, Paris, with Hortense Schneider in the title role, José Dupuis as Piquillo and Pierre-Eugène Grenier as the Viceroy. The piece did reasonably well at the box office, but the plot with its poor and hungry heroine and hero exploited by a tyrannical ruler was seen by some as downbeat compared with Offenbach's more exuberant hits, and two drunk scenes offended some members of the audience. After the trauma of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 a revised version with a less sarcastic tone was more in accord with Parisian sensibilities, while La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein was banned for its anti-militaristic satire. The revised three-act version premiered at the Variétés on 25 April 1874, with the original three singers in the main roles. The analyst Alexandre Dratwicki comments that the 1874 version though still nominally an opéra bouffe was more in a new opéra comique style that pointed towards the works of Offenbach's younger contemporary Charles Lecocq.Dratwicki, pp. 43–44
A revival of the three-act version took place at the Variétés on 9 March 1877 with Anna Judic in the title role, with Dupuis. The work was seen again in Paris in 1895, when Jeanne Granier played La Périchole and has been staged frequently in France since then.Gänzl and Lamb, p. 306 and Gänzl, p. 1592
Outside France, La Périchole was first seen in Brussels on 5 December 1868, and then in New York at Pike's Opera House on 4 January 1869, Vienna on 9 January 1869, Stockholm on 6 February 1869, Berlin on 6 April 1870, and London on 27 June 1870 (in French) at the Princess's Theatre, with South American premieres in Rio de Janeiro in 1869 and Buenos Aires in 1870.La Périchole. L'Avant-Scène Opéra, No. 66, August 1984 It had a further run in New York at the Grand Opera House beginning on 18 January 1871."La Perichole" at the IBDB database
La Périchole played a part in the development of English comic opera when, on 25 March 1875 at the Royalty Theatre in London, it played (in English) on a triple bill with Charles Collette's one-act farce Cryptoconchoidsyphonostomata and Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, the latter of which was written specifically to be a companion piece for La Périchole. Selina Dolaro starred. Trial by Jury became a hit and led to the famous series of Savoy Operas.Crowther, p. 118
Later productions France In The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, Kurt Gänzl comments that although there were revivals of the opera in the later years of the 19th century it was, for a time, less popular than "its more exuberant predecessors", but more recently "as the fashion for theatrical sentimentality has won out over the old fondness for high and/or low comedy, La Périchole has found itself progressively more popular amongst the list of Offenbach's works". In Gänzl's view the piece has come to hold "a position and a popularity in the Offenbach canon greater than at perhaps any other time".Gänzl, p. 1592 The piece has been continually revived in France. Les Archives du spectacle lists more than thirty-five productions in France, Belgium and Switzerland in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, by directors including Maurice Lehmann, Jérôme Savary and Laurent Pelly with singers including Jane Rhodes, Michel Caron, Gabriel Bacquier and Maria Ewing."La Périchole", Les Archives du spectacle. Retrieved 3 April 2024 The most recent (2022) major production in Paris was at the Opéra-Comique with Stéphanie d'Oustrac (La Périchole), Philippe Talbot (Piquillo) and Tassis Christoyannis (Don Andrès de Rebeira)."La Périchole", Les Archives du spectacle. Retrieved 3 April 2024
North America Subsequent revivals in New York were at Abbey's Theatre in April 1895 with Lillian Russell (a production she later took to Canada),"As La Perichole", The Gazette, Montreal, 12 October 1895, p. 8 Jolson's Theatre in December 1925 in a production by the Moscow Arts Theatre company with Olga Baclanova which one critic said turned the piece into "melodrama-bouffe","This Week's Openings", The Sunday News, 20 December 1925 and in December 1956 at the Metropolitan Opera in a new English version that included interpolations from other Offenbach operas and changes to the libretto and score.Changes to the score were prepared by Jean Paul Morel and Ignace Strasfogel, and to the libretto by Maurice Valency. See "La Périchole (Metropolitan Opera version)", Boosey & Hawkes (1956) Patrice Munsel sang the title role, with Theodor Uppman as Piquillo and Cyril Ritchard (who directed) as the Viceroy.Chapman, John. "La Perichole a Happy, Tuneful Light Opera Feast at the Met", The Daily News, 24 December 1956, p. 183 The New York Times described the production as "musical theater at its best".Klein, Howard. "Opera", The New York Times, 12 December 1965, p. 50
Britain
London performances included productions at the Charing Cross Theatre (March 1876), the Alhambra Theatre (November 1878) with Emily Soldene, the Folly Theatre (April 1879) with Dolaro, and the Garrick Theatre (September 1897) with Florence St John. The John Lewis Partnership Music Society, consisting of amateurs with a professional conductor, producer and professional orchestra (of Chelsea Opera Group), staged a production by Anthony Besch conducted by James Robertson in 1961.Jacobs, Arthur. "La Périchole. John Lewis Theatre, April 18" Opera, June 1961, Vol.12, No. 6, p. 418 Robertson also conducted a London Opera Centre production in 1965.Sadie, Stanley. "La Périchole. London Opera Centre, July 21, 2", Opera, September 1965, p. 681 The Buxton Festival, with the Northern Chamber Orchestra under Andrew Greenwood, and Richard Coxon as Piquillo, Victoria Simmonds in the title role, Eric Roberts as Viceroy, staged the work in 2002.Milnes, Rodney. "La Périchole and Erismna – Buxton Festival at the Opera House, Buxton", Opera, September 2002, p. 1131 The Garsington summer opera festival mounted the piece in 2012 with Naomi O'Connell and Robert Murray in the lead roles.Kennedy, Michael. "La Périchole", Opera, August 2012, Vol. 63, No. 8, pp. 1007–1008
Other European productions A 1931 revival at the Kroll Opera in Berlin was well received. A contemporary reviewer wrote:
In 1977 at Stockholm's Södra Teatern (in Swedish) Elisabeth Söderström took the title-role, with Jonny Blanc as Piquillo, and Hans Alfredson as the Viceroy, with Birgit Nordin, Sylvia Lindenstrand, Ileana Peterson and Carl Johan Falkman.Benvenga, Nancy. "Sweden 'Lulu' and 'Périchole' – Stockholm", Opera, June 1977, Vol. 28, No. 6, p. 598 The Vienna Volksoper mounted a new production of the piece in 1992, and it was seen in 1998 in Zurich with Philippe Duminy as Don Andres, Deon van der Walt as Piquillo, and Vesselina Kasarova as La Périchole.Koegler, Horst. "Report from Zurich", Opera, July 1998, Vol. 49, No.7, p. 848
Roles RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 6 October 1868,(Conductor: Jacques Offenbach)"La Périchole", L'Avant-Scène Opéra, No 66, August 1984, for both 1868 and 1874 castsRevised version, 25 April 1874,(Conductor: Jacques Offenbach)La Périchole, a poor street singermezzo-soprano Hortense SchneiderHortense SchneiderPiquillo, a poor street singertenor José DupuisJosé DupuisDon Andrès de Ribeira, Viceroy of PerubaritonePierre-Eugène GrenierPierre-Eugène GrenierDon Miguel de Panatellas, First Gentleman of the BedchambertenorChristianBaronDon Pedro de Hinoyosa, Mayor of LimabaritoneLecomteLéonceGuadalena, first cousinsopranoLegrandJ GrandvilleBerginella, second cousinsopranoCarlinLina BellMastrilla, third cousinmezzo-sopranoC. Renault SchweskaThe Marquis de Tarapote, Lord Chancellor spokenCharles Blondelet Charles BlondeletManuelita, lady of the CourtsopranoJulia HMartinNinetta, lady of the CourtsopranoBénardValpréBrambilla, lady of the Courtmezzo-sopranoGravierLavigneFrasquinella, lady of the Courtmezzo-sopranoA LatourJuliaFirst notarytenorBordierBordierSecond notarytenorHorton Monti First drinker (1868)tenorVideix –Second drinker (1868)tenorHalserc –Two men, a courtesan and a bailiff (1868) – – –Le Marquis de Satarem, "The old prisoner", in disguise (1874)spoken –D BacGaoler (1874)spoken –CosteChorus: A crowd, drinkers, showmen; Ladies and Lords of the court; soldiers.
Synopsis
Place: Lima, Peru Time: 1750s
Act 1 The Plaza
In the main square of Lima, outside The Three Cousins tavern, the crowd is celebrating the birthday of Don Andrès de Ribeira, the Viceroy of Peru. Don Pedro de Hinoyosa (Mayor of Lima), Count Miguel de Panatellas (First Gentleman of the Bedchamber), and Don Andrès enter in disguise. Everyone recognizes them but pretends not to. La Périchole and Piquillo, poor young street singers, arrive in the square, trying to raise money for their marriage licence. They please the crowd with romantic duets, but some acrobats entice the crowd away before they can collect any money. Piquillo sets off, hoping for better luck elsewhere, while Périchole escapes hunger in sleep.