Originally performed in 1894, the Burlesque Opera of Tabasco is a musical comedy composed by George W. Chadwick with a libretto by R. A. Barnet. At first titled Tabasco, the opera was created without the knowledge of McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand pepper sauce since 1868. The company, however, subsequently approved its performance. The opera went on to tour the U.S. to critical acclaim, but disagreements between Chadwick and the musical's producer eventually derailed its success.
Origin
A Boston volunteer militia, the First Corps of Cadets, commissioned Chadwick and Barnet to create the opera as a fundraiser for a new armory. The cadets themselves performed the musical for this charitable purpose. Soon, however, showman Thomas Q. Seabrooke — impressed by the opera's popularity — purchased the rights and renamed it the Burlesque Opera of Tabasco Because Seabrooke intended to perform the opera commercially, he required, and obtained, the permission of McIlhenny Company to use its proprietary trademark. As part of its approval, however, McIlhenny Company required Seabrooke to pass out samples of Tabasco sauce during his productions. A giant papier-mâché Tabasco sauce bottle appeared on stage during the performance, and an image of the bottle showed up on the opera's published sheet music. So popular was Seabrooke's commercial production of the opera that “The Tabasco March,” the main theme composed by Chadwick, was issued in the form of a mechanical music box disk.
Story
The opera centered on a Middle Easternpasha who craved spicy food. Enraged by the blandness of fare provided by his royal kitchen, the pasha threatened to chop off the head of his French chef. The chef frantically searched the city for seasonings and ran into a blind beggar who gave him a mysterious potion. The concoction turned out to be Tabasco brand pepper sauce. Its piquant flavor satisfied the pasha and saved the day.
ACT I Overture 1. Chorus "Dawning, the dawning, the Shadows westward fall" 2. Grand Vizier's song "I'm Vizier here, I'm always in mishap" 3. Pasha's song and chorus "I do not care what other people say" 4. Chorus "Reading of the mail" 5. Song and chorus "Tin tan, tin tan, patty pan" 6. Fatima's song "O lovely home" 7. "Gem of the Orient" Pasha, Fatima, Lola, Marco, and chorus 8. François' Lament "The shamrock blooms white on the lakes of Killarney" 9. Finale "Hail to his highness the Peer of Tabasco" ACT II Interlude 1. Chorus "A beauty my boy you are, you are" 2. Hasbeena and Harem "Hush, hush follow me" 3. Love Duet, Fatima, and Marco "My heart again to hope begins" 4. Loves of the World: 4a. Quartette à la Bolero "In Barcelona lived a maid" 4b. Irish Ditty "Ah now thin be aisy for love is a daisy" 4c. French Rigaudon & Razzle Dazzle "He met his love at the students' ball" 4d. Plantation Ballad "O darkies don't yer 'member de old Kentucky farm" 4e. Melodrama 5. Solo and chorus "Ho mariner ho" 6. Song and Chorus "Greet the old man with a smile" 7. Pasha's song "An original idea" 8. March of the Pasha's Guard 9. Dance of the Harem 10. Finale "Ev'rybody is coming"
Legacy
In 2012 New Orleans conductor Paul Mauffray became one of the first musicians to rediscover the opera's missing libretto along with other, related historical documents. This event spurred him to reconstruct the score based on the surviving but incomplete sheet music. In 2014 Mauffray conducted part of the Burlesque Opera Tabasco in New Orleans and also conducted excerpts in such disparate locales as Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, California, and Chattanooga. In January 2018 Paul Mauffray conducted the entire opera in a production of New Orleans Opera Association directed by Josh Shaw, complete with sets and costumes, in performances at Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré in New Orleans' French Quarter
1894 Performances
George Whitefield Chadwick's Burlesque Opera Tabasco was performed in 1894 in the following cities:
