Pomme d’Api (“Apple of My Eye”) is a one-act comic operetta by Jacques Offenbach from 1873, the latter part of his career: an intimate domestic rom-com for soprano, baritone and tenor, full of fun, frivolity and some very catchy tunes.
The 2022 French May production interpolates two additional arias, “À tout les metiers” from Pépito (1853) and the well-known “Ah, quel diner” from La Périchole (1868). It debuted in an extended version at the Guangzhou Opera House on 30 June 2023 as part of the Festival Croisements.
Originally set in 1870s Paris, we have moved the action to Hong Kong, close to a century later. Catherine, known as “Apple”, the apple of everyone’s eye, has just been engaged as a chambermaid by a Vertigo Rabastens, an expat French bachelor “of a certain age” who has an eye for the ladies. Unbeknownst to him, however, she is the recently abandoned girlfriend of his chauffeur Gustave, forced to break it off by his employer. Gustave, distressed beyond measure at having “Apple” suddenly show up at his place of employment, tries to win her back but finds himself in romantic competition with his boss.
It all ends happily – and with an unforgettably memorable finale that gives Offenbach’s famous “Can-can” a run for its money – with a warning from Catherine that Gustave had better behave better in future.
Pomme d’Api had two gala performances at the Peninsula Hotel’s Michelin-starred Gaddi’s restaurant.
Pomme d’Api premiered in an extended version at the Guangzhou Opera House on 30 June 2023 as part of the Festival Croisements, with a second run at the Peninsula Shanghai in March 2024.
It features a new arrangement for chamber ensemble by Marco Iannelli, and four additional selections from La Périchole, one for each soloist and a duet.
The new staging has a small local opera company producing Pomme d’Api: the founder and baritone has just fired his soprano, but has engaged a new one, fresh off a non-operatic nightclub gig, who just happens to be the tenor’s girlfriend. And he doesn’t approve.
