Whittington (opera)

Whittington is the only major work of Offenbach to have received its premiere in London, and came between the incidental music for La Haine and his third version of Geneviève de Brabant.

[2] The 1890s French critic in Les Annales was particularly impressed by several numbers of the score, noting particularly the quartet "Tout bon citoyen d'Angleterre", the cat's song, the duetto "Mais qu'est ce donc qu'une chatte ?"

In anticipation of the new piece, the Alhambra revived Offenbach's Le roi Carotte; at its premiere Whittington was preceded by Dieu et la Bayadère by Auber and a one-act farce.

[2] The notice given in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News for the 1874–1875 production criticized both text and music, and faulting it for tampering with the well-known story and transposing the whole cast on the ship to meet the fate of being shipwrecked.

In more recent times the 2000 City of London Festival included a concert performance of the work at the Mansion House, using materials reconstructed from an autograph score dating from Offenbach's lifetime, possibly for a putative French staging.

The cast included Sally Bruce-Payne in the title rôle, Constance Hauman, Nerys Jones, Christian Immler and Kevin West; the conductor was Cem Mansur and narrator John Suchet.

In the second act the ship has set in on the exotic island of Bambouli with temples and sacred gardens where Whittington and others witness a grand procession of the local ruler.