A decade before the wonderful Lyon staging of this gorgeous piece was brought to the Festival, EUOC provided the Scottish premiere. The English translation, under the appropriate title The Horoscope, was provided by Roger Savage, and David Kimbell made a tactful reduction of the score for piano trio and percussion. While some of the subtlety of Chabrier's fabulous orchestration was no doubt lost, the risqué elements of the plot still made it a perfect entertainment for students. At this stage it was deemed sensible to have the lead role of Lazuli, a lovely travesti part for a good young mezzo, performed by a tenor. The important thing was simply to get this unknown work on stage - and it is still not established in the repertoire.
Roger Savage's English version adopted a wholesale renaming of parts - so Tapioca, as secretary to Hérisson, became Quill, in the employ of Sir Fretful Porpentine. The first maid was renamed Lotus Blossom (a name familiar to most of the audience from the long-running radio comedy series Round The Horne).
The reduced score was delivered by a quartet consisting of Penny Harper (violin), Louise Paterson (cello), David Kimbell (piano) and David Lyle (percussion).
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