Southeast to present updated 200-year-old 'La Perichole'

Fifty-one Southeast Missouri State University student actors and musicians — under the guidance of six faculty members — are presenting a revised interpretation of 200-year-old French operetta “La Périchole” Friday and Sunday at the River Campus in Cape Girardeau.

Director and Southeast professor of music Christopher Goeke said the venue hosts one opera performance each year, and has done so for the last 10 years.

Southeast’s music department and theater and dance department are coming together to tell the tale of two young, desperately poor and starving street performers Goeke referred to as “buskers.”

The show leads are La Périchole — portrayed by Southeast students Emily Smith in one performance and Emily Davis in the other — and boyfriend, Piquillo, portrayed by student Michael Perreault.

The character names have remained the same, Goeke said of the modernized show, because of how the music is written.

“They can’t get married because they can’t afford it,” Goeke said. “So they’re really just trying to make a living by singing on street corners. They happen to be in New York City.”

He described the plot as being almost identical to the original script, even when factoring in the slight modernizations.

But Goeke and his team decided to go one step further: changing the translation completely.

“And I think that’ll make it really appealing,” he said. “I felt like the humor comes across best in English, for this. And even though we’re doing it in English, we’re also doing another opera tradition: supertitles (projected above the stage).”

Throughout the story, title character Perichole ends up getting involved with the fictitious president of the United States, Goeke said, and “it gets pretty wild.”

“It makes perfect sense why we’re doing it, but it’s a little wacky to explain,” he said.

The buskers eventually get mixed up with some desperate politicians, he said, who are ultimately only seeking love.

And everyone in the show is despairing, according to Goeke.

“The street singers are desperate to make money and to make a living, and the politicians are desperate for approval, doing anything to achieve it,” he said.

Goeke said the show exhibits several contemporary references to modern politics and social issues.

“That’s written right into the show,” he said. “If you know the original, you’ll see the plot points remain the same.”

Goeke said, “People who have never been to an opera would be very surprised by this (show). I think they would come and say, ‘Well, that’s a musical.’”

Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Bedell Performance Hall at Southeast’s River Campus.

Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus at (573) 651-2265.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632