Chilpéric (operetta)

Chilpéric (French pronunciation: [ʃilpeʁik]) is an opéra bouffe with libretto and music by Hervé, first produced in Paris on 24 October 1868 at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques.

These pieces, along with the same composer's Le petit Faust of 1869, represent burlesque - comic treatment of serious subjects, full of deliberate anachronisms and zany situations - at its most extreme.

A sudden thunderstorm produces panic in the King's and knights' horses, who bolt for shelter with their riders atop them as the Druids protect themselves from the elements with umbrellas of differing colours.

Brunehaut had gone to a lot of trouble to arrange a marriage between the King and her sister Princess Galswinthe, her secret plan being then to murder them both and claim the throne for her husband and herself as their nearest relatives.

Princess Galswinthe arrives with her attendants from Spain and is welcomed with great ceremony and festivities but Frédégonde interrupts the celebrations, shrieking in fury as she is carried into the middle of the throne room on a sedan chair, which however breaks apart and she is turned out.

The doctor, the Grand légendaire and Landry attempt to murder Brunehaut, Galswinthe and Frédégonde respectively, in the dark in the bridal chamber but the ladies put up a stiff resistance and chaos ensues until a button is pressed and they all fall through a trap door into the dungeon (along with the bed).

[4] Live horses featured in the staging, Hervé in his role as the King made his entrance on horseback singing the deliberately silly Chanson du jambon ("Ham song").

The finale to the first act, with the orchestra depicting a thunderstorm, several horses with their riders onstage running around in panic, and a chorus of Druids singing and dancing while twirling umbrellas of varying colours, created a sensation and became famous.

[4] By the beginning of the 20th century however audience taste in operetta had moved away from this style of extravagant zaniness to a more bourgeois kind of work and Chilpéric was only rarely performed.