Opera Scotland

Périchole 1988Schiller Theatre Company, Berlin

Read more about the opera Périchole

The performance of Offenbach's operettas is an extremely difficult art - they require a lightness of touch, even a delicacy of approach, to build up the correct atmosphere. Also, they are extremely difficult to sing. It has to be said that this new production, by a German theatre company, not an opera one, failed on both counts. The singers simply didn't have the basic vocal technique required, so the solo numbers all lacked the required charm. And the humour had a sadly laboured aspect, which the undoubted acting talents of the artists could not easily overcome.