Tom Higgins
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Sunday 17th January 2010
“La Périchole: Paris goes to Peru”
Tom Higgins
Opera South Director of Music
and Michael Hartnall, Opera South Casting Director
present the opera performed as our February 2010 production
Talk fully illustrated on the piano and with CDs
Time: 2:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tickets £12.50 (including afternoon tea in the interval)
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Jacques Offenbach
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Strolling Players by Francisco Goya, 1793
Oil on tinplate, 43 x 32 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
La Périchole’s title character is based on
Micaela Villegas,
a beloved 18th century Peruvian entertainer and the famous mistress of Manuel de Amat y Juniet,
Viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776.
The story is that of two impoverished Peruvian street-singers,
too poor to afford a marriage license, and a lecherous viceroy, Don Andrès de Ribeira,
who wishes to make La Périchole his mistress.
Highlights include La Périchole’s letter song,
“O mon cher amant”; her “tipsy” aria, “Ah! quel dîner!”;
and her third-act aria to Piquillo, “Tu n’es pas beau, tu n’es pas riche”.
The opera will be performed in Haslemere Hall
by Opera South
on 23rd, 24th, 26th, 27th February 2010.