Opera at USC: La Périchole (Offenbach)

Captivating comedic characters, delightful music and engaging romantic intrigues. That’s what patrons will experience at Opera at USC’s first production of the season – La Périchole (The Street Singer). The score has been called Jacques Offenbach’s most charming, providing an exotic backdrop with boleros, seguidillas (old Castilian folksong and dance form in quick triple time) and gallops (lively ballroom dance in duple time, popular in the late 18th century).  La Périchole is considered one of Offenbach’s best scores; it contains an abundance of fine melodies, lively action and wit, inventive harmonies and orchestral writing, and effective theatrics. The story concerns Périchole and Piquillo, two impoverished Peruvian street-singers, too poor to afford a marriage license, and a lecherous viceroy, Don Andrès de Ribeira, who wishes to make Périchole his mistress. What ensues is a love story with winsome characterizations and comic dilemmas.

General admission tickets $25; seniors, USC faculty/staff and military $20; students $7.

Purchase online at www.sc.edu/music/opera, call 803-777-5369 or purchase at the door.