Offenbach Double Bill

TWO BLIND MEN

(Les Deux Aveugles)

(1855)

Music by Jacques Offenbach

Libretto by Jules Moinaux

English Version by Jacob Allen

The work that helped start it all! When Jacques Offenbach opened his Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in 1855, Les Deux Aveugles was among the works that announced the arrival of a fresh, irreverent, and unmistakably Parisian form of musical theater. Its success helped establish both Offenbach’s new theater and the comic style that would eventually sweep across Europe and influence generations of operetta composers.

On a bridge in Paris, two supposedly blind musicians, Patachon and Giraffier, compete for the most profitable begging location. Each regards the other as an unwelcome threat to business, and each invents increasingly elaborate tales of hardship in an effort to claim the sympathies—and coins—of passing pedestrians. There is only one difficulty: neither man is actually blind. Their efforts to expose one another without revealing their own deception escalate into a hilariously shameless contest of music, manipulation, and professional rivalry. With only two principal characters, Offenbach and librettist Jules Moinaux created a miniature comic masterpiece whose pointed social satire remains as recognizable today as it was to Parisian audiences in 1855.

REGRETS ONLY

(M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le…)

(1861)

Music by Jacques Offenbach

Original Libretto by M. de St. Rémy

English Version by James Stuart

No social occasion is complete without music—and no social climber’s reputation can survive a disastrous party. A wealthy and culturally ambitious host has arranged an elegant private concert featuring three celebrated Italian opera stars. The invitations have been sent, fashionable society is on its way, and an evening of artistic triumph seems assured. Then word arrives that the singers will not appear.

Cancellation is unthinkable. With the guests already assembling, the host, his daughter, and her musically gifted sweetheart take the stage themselves, impersonating the missing celebrities and attempting to pass off their hastily assembled performance as an evening of international operatic brilliance. Their increasingly desperate masquerade gives Offenbach ample opportunity to parody grand opera, fashionable pretension, and the lengths to which people will go to impress their neighbors.

Originally titled M. Choufleuri restera chez lui le…—“Mr. Choufleuri Will Be at Home On…”—the work was first performed privately in Paris in May 1861 and publicly at the Bouffes-Parisiens that September. OLO audiences will encounter it under the witty English title Regrets Only, in the version previously presented by the company and revised by James Stuart.

Together, Two Blind Men and Regrets Only reveal Offenbach at his most concentrated and mischievous: two pocket-sized theatrical gems in which vanity, deception, social aspiration, and glorious music collide.