Apothicaire et perruquier
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Apothicaire et perruquier (Apothecary and Wigmaker/Hairdresser) is a one-act opérette-bouffe with music by Jacques Offenbach to a French libretto by Élie Frébault, first performed in 1861, one of six new works he premiered that year.[1] Faris describes the score as "pastiche" "in the decorated vocal style of the eighteenth century".[2]
The libretto ('opérette du temps jadis' [operetta from times gone by]) was first set to music by Laurent de Rillé but the score was lost. In the face of an irate librettist, Offenbach set to work to compose an operetta in a pastiche of classical style. The premiere of Offenbach's work was on 17 October 1861 at the Salle Choiseul, Paris, and it shared the bill on the opening night of the following season. It was also on the bill for the premiere of La permission de dix heures in September 1873 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance.[3]
The Offenbach-Keck critical edition of Apothicaire et perruquier was first performed at the Kurtheater, Bad Ems, Germany, (in German) on the 1 June 2007, with the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln conducted by Helmuth Froschauer,[4] with soloists Mojca Erdmann, Jörg Sabrowski, Leandro Fischetti and Michael Gann.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 17 October 1861[3] Conductor: Jacques Offenbach |
|---|---|---|
| Boudinet | tenor | Desmonts |
| Chilpéric | tenor | Pierre-Armand Potel |
| Plumoiseau | tenor | Jean-Paul |
| Sempronia | soprano | Mlle Gervais |
