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

Parachute Youth: Supporting Rudimental is not a clash of interests

I’ve not heard many bands that had quite the same kick as Pendulum did. Their unbelievable fusion of...

Review of Glee ‘Sweet Dreams’

The episode begins with Finn (Cory Monteith) at college, partying and accidentally participating in ...

Doctor Who ‘The Name of the Doctor’ – Series 7, episode 13

What a wonderful way to end this momentous series in the 50th year of Doctor Who. From the start of ...

       
Independent
Travel Shop
South Africa
15 nights from only £1,899pp Find out more
Paris and the Cote d’Azur city break
Seven nights from £579pp Find out more
Seville, Granada and Malaga break
Seven nights from £549pp Find out more

ES Rentals

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

    Masculinity in crisis?

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

    Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
    Heavenly Bodies

    Heavenly Bodies

    Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
    'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

    'He will always be a friend'

    Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski
    The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised as a brave act

    The price of pacifism

    From the Second World War refusenik to the 19-year-old Israeli, Holly Williams talks to five people who risked shame and suffering to take a stand as conscientious objector.
    'It was mass hysteria': Jason Isaacs on groupies, theatre bores and snogging James Bond

    Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond

    To millions, Jason Isaacs is one of Harry Potter's arch enemies – but his wife prefers him as a Scottish TV detective.
    Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?

    Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?

    Thomas Hodgkinson spent a week at the tiny platform off the Suffolk coast to find out.
    Not a bad bone: Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    If you ignore cutlets and ribs, you'll risk missing out on some delicious and easy meals, says our chef.
    The experts' guide to summer: From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz

    The experts' guide to summer

    From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz
    Sex, drugs and fast cars: The legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Early glimpses of Ron Howard's film Rush suggest it will portray Hunt as a high-living lothario, with an insatiable appetite for partying.
    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation when using drugs and alcohol. It was hurting my life'

    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'

    The next Vanilla Ice or the next Eminem? Macklemore doesn't have a record contract – but he does have the UK's biggest-selling single of the year.
    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Sri Lankan cuisine is light, sunny, wonderfully spiced – and so easy to cook from scratch. Just as soon as you've broken into the coconut, that is.
    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Doctors are hailing the revamp of a Bath neonatal unit, where babies sleep more and feed better, as the model for patient care
    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    Epecuen was submerged under 10 metres of water in 1985. Now the floods have gone – and 83-year-old Pablo Novak has moved back in