This semester the Opera/Music Theatre Workshop will be presenting the comic opera, “La Perichole” by Jaçques Offenbach.
The performance will be directed by Rachel Harris and conducted by Charles Effler. Performances will take place at the Columbia Theatre on Feb. 6 and 7 at 7:30 p.m.
The opera takes place in 19th century Lima and follows two street singers, Perichole and Piquillo, who want to marry but cannot afford a marriage license. The local viceroy takes a fancy to Perichole and wants to make her one of his many court mistresses; however, for the sake of respectability, all court ladies must be married, so after convincing her to come to court and leave Piquillo behind, the viceroy’s servants search for a husband for Perichole.  They coerce the heartbroken Piquillo to be her groom; however, Piquillo does not know that his bride-to-be is the woman he loves and creates a romantic comedy of mistaken identity and chaos.
Effler is enthusiastic about the production, revealing practical and artistic reasons for its selection.
“My predecessor in this job told me about this piece long ago, and the problem about using it is there are lots of tenor roles and not very many basses,” said Effler. “That’s not what I had those years ago. Now I have lots of tenors and not many basses. So yes, it was practical because of all the tenors and basses that I had, but it’s also a good piece. There’s lots of running around and silly stuff going on. [There’s] laughter every five seconds.”
The performers prepared for their roles in different ways.
“I started preparing my role by finding characters that compare to my role,” said Chase Ledet, who will be playing the viceroy. “My big influence for the viceroy was Kuzco from “The Emperor’s New Groove.” Both characters have a comedic disposition about them but still hold themselves as royalty. I picked certain things I liked about how Kuzco walks, talks and holds himself and paired that with my knowledge of royalty.”
For some, preparation was not a challenge.
“The role of La Perichole is not a hard role to prepare for,” said Alyssa Hernandez, one of the performers who will be portraying the titular character. “La Perichole is not your average girl. She is tough, and she knows how to survive. There are plenty of times in the story line she wants to take care of herself and proves to her boyfriend that she can. I mentally prepare myself to be tough.”
Effler is certain that students will enjoy “La Perichole,” even if they recoil from the idea of attending an opera, due to the enthusiastic reception of a previous Southeastern production of a comic opera, “The Pirates of Penzance.”
“[Students] will love it. I know they will love it, because they loved ‘Pirates of Penzance,'” said Effler. “I have a friend in the English faculty who was teaching a communication course and made her students go see the show for extra credit. This one guy who was part of the class kept groaning about having to go see an opera. The next week, she asked, ‘How did you like the opera?’ and he said, ‘I went twice.’ It’s going to be the same thing with this show.”
Many performers share his optimism.
“I think students will love this show,” said Ledet. “We have an extremely talented cast and chorus, and the show is very funny. It’s going to be very lighthearted, fun and easy to watch.”
Hernandez agrees and shares the ability of an audience to see the cast bring the plot to life and the enjoyment they have in portraying their characters.
“There are many hysterical scenes, and you can really tell the cast has a great time working with each other.”
Tickets can be purchased at the Colombia Theatre box office at the cost of $21. Southeastern students can get in free with their student ID; children 12 years and younger will be charged $8. For more information contact the box office at  985-543-4371.