La Perichole, Garsington Opera at Wormsley, Bucks

2.00

 

Suggested Topics

"Monsieur Offenbach regularly composes three waltzes before lunch, a mazurka after dinner, and four galops[sic] between the two meals" - so wrote France’s waltz-king pseudonymously about himself. Full marks to Garsington for reviving one of the less-performed of his twenty operettas.

The plot of ‘La Perichole’ - which premiered in London in 1875 in a double-bill with Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Trial by Jury’ - is broad farce. Street-singers Piquillo and La Perichole are in love but can’t afford a marriage licence; smitten by the girl’s beauty, the all-powerful Viceroy tempts her into his harem with offers of food, but since for that she must be legally ‘married’, a husband is sought, who turns out to be her paramour. Drink fuels the ensuing confusion in which Piquillo is dragged down to a dungeon reserved for recalcitrant husbands, but the truth comes out and all ends well.

Offenbach’s thinly-veiled purpose was satire. The story may be set in 18th-century Peru, but his target was the lecherous hypocrisy of Napoleon III and his court; it all slipped down a treat, thanks to its irresistible melodies and Gallic charm. But such seemingly simple material is not easy to transplant, as Rory Bremner found when he tried unsuccessfully to Anglicise and update Offenbach’s ‘Orpheus’ last year.

For ‘La Perichole’, Jeremy Sams translates and directs his own show, but his intentions are cloudy. Francis O’Connor’s set is picturesque in a Hispanic sort of way, and the strenuously-choreographed routines of the populace have a music-hall tinge; Geoffrey Dolton’s Viceroy is a satisfying pantomime villain, but Naomi O’Connell’s Perichole – playing up to Robert Murray’s appealing Piquillo - is so prosaically hard-bitten that even that qualified suspension of disbelief required for farce is out of the question.

I spent the first two acts trying to work out why the efforts of the cast were failing to spark with the audience. Was it the forced jollity of the direction, or the fact that the rhyming libretto was flippant rather than witty? Events designed to be side-splittingly funny went off like damp squibs; songs and dances which should have been bewitching weren’t. Only in the third act did things take off, and that was because three performers with impeccable comic timing were given their head - Dolton, Walter van Dyk as a randy old prisoner, and the Protean Simon Butteriss.

www.garsingtonopera.org

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

The Fall ‘Darkness Visible’ – Series 1, episode 2

There is a good many moments in the second episode of this psychological thriller that deserve refle...

‘Vicious’ – Series 1, episode 4

The opening titles squeal ‘Never Can Say Goodbye…’. Oh Lord how I wish I could heave this series off...

Game of Thrones ‘Second Sons’ – Season 3, episode 8

Even though there was a complete absence of our favourite odd couple Brienne and Jaime, we got anoth...

       
Independent
Travel Shop
India and Shimla
14 nights from only £1899pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from £199pp Find out more
4* Soreda hotel break, Malta
Seven nights all-inclusive from £399pp Find out more

ES Rentals

    National archives: Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

    Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

    Newly unearthed papers reveal a shocking extra dimension to the constitutional crisis over monarch’s abdication
    Sent down at the Old Bailey: A tour of the world's most famous court

    Sent down at the Old Bailey

    A tour of the world's most famous court
    Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

    Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

    The Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis’s date for his movie premieres isn’t arm candy  – it’s his 87-year-old friend who he saved from homelessness
    British football scores an own goal

    British football scores an own goal

    Many managers barely survive a year in post. Martin Baker talks to experts who make a case for clubs using forensic business skills to find the best staff
    James Lawton: Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again

    James Lawton

    Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again
    Dylan Hartley: Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong

    Dylan Hartley talks tough

    Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong
    Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

    Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

    A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
    'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

    'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

    Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
    Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

    Plenty of sleaze

    Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
    Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

    The Freemasons’ Code

    Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
    Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

    Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

    Nick Buckles survived the Olympics débâcle and a £5bn bid fiasco but a profit warning finally triggered his downfall
    How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

    How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

    Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar
    Why clubs are keen to take a stand

    Why clubs are keen to take a stand

    There's a real desire around the grounds for safe standing. But will the authorities listen?
    In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

    In the end the fans decided Tony Pulis had made a pig's ear of the job at Stoke City

    Disillusion with a siege mentality and negative playing style made change inevitable
    James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

    James Lawton: The James Hunt I knew is the subject of a new F1 movie

    British driver was fascinating man whose epic duel with Niki Lauda in 1976 was typical of an era of glamour and glory – but also the ever-present threat of death