La Périchole marks a transition in Jacques…

La Périchole marks a transition in Jacques Offenbach's style, with less exuberant satire and more human romantic interest in October 1868.

There is some critical grumbling at the change, but the piece, with Schneider in the lead, does good business.

It will be quickly produced in Europe and both North and South America.

Offenbach has by now written four of the operettas for which he is chiefly remembered: La belle Hélène (1864), La vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868).

Ludovic Halévy had been joined as librettist for all of them by Henri Meilhac.

For La belle Hélène, Offenbach had secured Hortense Schneider to play the title role.

Since her early success in his short operas, she had become a leading star of the French musical stage.

She now commands large fees and is notoriously temperamental, but Offenbach is adamant that no other singer can match her as Hélène.

Rehearsals for the premiere at the Théâtre des Variétés had been tempestuous, with Schneider and the principal mezzo-soprano feuding, the censor fretting about the satire of the imperial court, and the manager of the theater attempting to rein in Offenbach's extravagance with production expenses.

Once again, the success of the piece had been inadvertently assured by the critic Janin; his scandalized notice had been strongly countered by liberal critics and the ensuing publicity had again brought the public flocking.

Barbe-bleue, a success in early 1866, had been quickly reproduced elsewhere.

La vie parisienne later in the same year had represented a new departure for Offenbach and his librettists; for the first time in a large-scale piece they had chosen a modern setting, instead of disguising their satire under a classical cloak.

It needed no accidental boost from Janin but was an instant and prolonged success with Parisian audiences, although its very Parisian themes made it less popular abroad.

The piece had starred Zulma Bouffar, who had begun an affair with the composer that will last until at least 1875.

Offenbach had experienced his greatest success in 1867.

The premiere of La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, a satire on militarism, had taken place two days after the opening of the Paris Exhibition, an even greater international draw than the 1855 exhibition which had helped him launch his composing career.

The Parisian public and the foreign visitors had flocked to the new operetta.

The foreign royalty who had seen the piece include the King of Prussia accompanied by his chief minister, Otto von Bismarck.

Halévy, with his experience as a senior civil servant, had seen more clearly than most the looming threat from Prussia, writing in his diary, "Bismarck is helping to double our takings.

This time it's war we're laughing at, and war is at our gates." (Harding, James (1980). Jacques Offenbach: A Biography. London: John Calder. p. 172)

La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein had been followed quickly by a series of successful pieces: Robinson Crusoé, Geneviève de Brabant (revised version; both 1867), Le château à Toto, Le pont des soupirs (revised version) and L'île de Tulipatan (all in 1868).