FULL BA-TA-CLAN (Offenbach) Zurich 2025 Sara-Bigna Janett, Julia Schiwowa, Christoph Waltle, Valérian Bitschnau

Information on the Performance

• Work Title: Ba-ta-clan (Operette in 1 Akt) -   
• Composer: Offenbach Jacques   
• Libretto: Ludovic Halévy    Libretto Text, Libretto Index
• Venue & Opera Company: Gemeindesaal Zollikon, Switzerland, Zürcher Kammeroper  
• Recorded: January 2025
• Type: Staged Opera Live
• Singers: Sara-Bigna Janett, Julia Schiwowa, Christoph Waltle, Valérian Bitschnau, Erich Bieri, Beat Gärtner Conductor: Orchestra: Chorus: Stage Director: Paul Suter Costume Designer: Lighting Designer: Markus Brunn
• Conductor: Caspar Dechman  
• Orchestra: Zürcher Kammeroper  
• Chorus: Herrenchor der Zürcher Kammeroper  
• Stage Director: Paul Suter   
• Costume Designer:   
• Lighting Designer: Markus Brunn  

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Zürcher Kammeroper  
• Date Published: 2026  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: nosubs  

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

  Ba-ta-clan is a “chinoiserie musicale” (or operetta) in one act with music by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, on 29 December 1855. The operetta uses set numbers and spoken dialogue and runs for under an hour.

  Background
  Ba-ta-clan was Offenbach’s first big success, and opened his new winter theatre, the Salle Choiseul. The witty piece satirised everything from contemporary politics to grand opera conventions. It was frequently revived in Paris, London and New York for decades, and Offenbach eventually expanded it as a full-length piece with a cast of eleven. Offenbach’s early operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France limited the licence for musical theatre works (other than most operas) to one-act pieces with no more than three singers and, perhaps, some mute characters. In 1858, this law was changed, and Offenbach was able to offer full-length works, beginning with Orpheus in the Underworld.

  In 1864, a music-hall called Bataclan opened in Paris, named after the operetta, and is still functioning today.

  Synopsis

  The action takes place in Ché-i-no-or, in the gardens of the palace of the Emperor Fè-ni-han, with kiosks and pagodas. Ko-ko-ri-ko, chief of the guard is the head of a conspiracy to dethrone the Emperor; the opera opens with the conspirators setting the scene in Chinese. They leave, and the princess Fé-an-nich-ton reads a book – La Laitière de Montfermeil by Paul de Kock; she notices that Ké-ki-ka-ko is leafing through a copy of La Patrie. They realize that each of them is not Chinese, but French. Ké-ki-ka-ko is the Viscount Alfred Cérisy, once shipwrecked on the coast of China and captured, tortured and brought to the palace and condemned to only repeat the rebels’ song Ba-ta-clan. Fé-an-nich-ton confesses in song that she is Mademoiselle Virginie Durand, a light soprano who was on a Far East tour to initiate the locals into the great French repertoire: Les Huguenots and La Dame aux Camélias, La Juive and Les Rendez-vous bourgeois, Phèdre and Passé minuit, when she was captured by the soldiers of Fé-ni-han. The two Parisians reflect wistfully of home, and Fé-an-nich-ton sings the ‘Ronde de Florette’. They both decide to run away, dancing as they go.

  The conspirators return, but when alone, Fè-ni-han laments on his lot; he is actually Anastase Nourrisson, a native of Brive-la-Gaillarde and his only wish is to see France again. Ko-ko-ri-ko comes back threateningly and he and Fè-ni-han sing a duo in made-up Italian in the style of Bellini.[1] In fact Fé-an-nich-ton and Ké-ki-ka-ko have been caught by Ko-ko-ri-ko while trying to flee, and the emperor has been asked for the death penalty, which he cannot refuse.

  In their distress, Virginia and Alfred sing one last time La Ronde de Florette, and Fè-ni-han is amazed to hear them speaking French, likewise Fé-an-nich-ton and Ké-ki-ka-ko are surprised to hear the Emperor talking their language. Fè-ni-han dismisses the conspirators and explains how eight years previously he was dragged in front of the real prince Fè-ni-han and told that the only way he would avoid execution was by assuming the habits and role of emperor. He now makes the same offer to Ké-ki-ka-ko who naturally refuses, and asks why an insurrection is being plotted. Fè-ni-han, it seems, through not speaking Chinese had accidentally impaled the five most virtuous people in the land, and now faces a conspiracy against his rule. Ké-ki-ka-ko threatens to join the conspiracy so both summon the conspirators with the Ba-ta-clan anthem (mixed with the Chorale ‘Ein feste Burg’ from Les Huguenots). Finally, Fè-ni-han is handed a letter from the chief conspirator on a silver platter, revealing that he, Ko-ko-ri-ko, is also of French origin (born rue Mouffetard) and he is ready to provide the means for their escape in return for being allowed himself to become Emperor. All ends happily with a reprise of the Ba-ta-clan anthem, and Fé-an-nich-ton, Ké-ki-ka-ko and Fé-ni-han prepare to depart for France.

  Quoted from Wikipedia

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