Organization

Glimmerglass Festival

Isabel Leonard

Songbird

Ramin Karimloo

Piquillo

Conductor

James Lowe

Lighting designer

Robert Wierzel

Washington National Opera

Orchestra

The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Singer

Edward Nelson

Don Andres

Stage director

Eric Sean Fogel

Set designer

James F Rotondo

Sound designer

Mark Rivet

Jonathan Patton

Don Pedro

Justin Burgess

A Mobster

Teresa Perrotta

Guadalena

Kresley Figueroa

Berginella

Sahel Salam

Panatellas

Jonathan Pierce Rhodes

A Priest

Cecelia McKinley

Mastrilla

Taylor Alexis DuPont

Celeste

French

English

Songbird (La Périchole, adaption) -  (The Songbird (La Périchole adaptation))

Washington D.C.

United States

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Eisenhower theater

Songbird (La Périchole, adaption) Offenbach

Public

Private

The Songbird (La Périchole adaptation)

Approved

The hungriest bird sings the sweetest song.
New Orleans in the 1920s is roaring with decadence, but singers and lovers Songbird and Piquillo are down on hard times. As Mardi Gras arrives, the Mayor disguises himself and lures Songbird to be his mistress with the promise of food and lodging. Now Songbird must choose between financial security and true love. What’s a hungry artist to do?

Jazz meets operetta in this playful new riff on Jacques Offenbach’s La Périchole. Offenbach’s comedic love story is transported to the glimmer and corruption of New Orleans during Prohibition, while his melodies are reimagined in the swinging style of the Jazz Age. Grammy Award®–winning superstar mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard portrays a struggling artist torn between her living and her love; while Tony®-nominated leading man Ramin Karimloo stars as her fellow singer and lover. With toe-tapping music, glamorous costumes, mistaken identities, and comic twists, Songbird infuses Frenchman Street flair into the classic “opéra bouffe” while keeping all of its irresistible charm.

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Adaptation created by Eric Sean Fogel, James Lowe, and Kelley Rourke
Musical arrangement and orchestration by James Lowe
English lyrics and book by Kelley Rourke
Based on La Périchole by Jacques Offenbach, Henri Meilhac, and Ludovic Halévy

In French and English with Projected English Titles
Commissoned by The Glimmerglass Festival, 2021

The Songbird (La Périchole adaptation) by Offenbach, From (2024/2024), Directed by Eric Sean Fogel,, Conductor James Lowe, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C., United States

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Co-Producer

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues