Pépito (opera)
opera by Jacques Offenbach
Pépito is a one act opéra comique of 1853 with music by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto is by Léon Battu and Jules Moinaux, inspired by an 1825 vaudeville by Scribe.
Performance history
Offenbach was director of music at the Comédie Française in the early 1850s, but desperate to gain recognition as a stage composer. He spent the summer of 1853 in Cologne with some of his family there to build his strength for battles ahead to win commissions and performances. Originally intended to be entitled Vertigo, Pépito received its premiere at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris on 28 October 1853. The work was dedicated to Mme Émile Perrin (wife of the then director of the Paris Opéra-comique), and was published by Challiot with some cuts in December that year.
Pépito was revived in March 1856 at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens and was part of the company’s repertoire for the rest of the decade. A production was mounted at the Carltheater in Vienna (as Das Mädchen von Elizondo) after which it was seen in Germany and Hungary for many years following. The London premiere was on 24 June 1857, Vienna was on 18 December and Budapest first saw the piece on 1 June 1859. Later Offenbach works with a Spanish flavour include Les bavards and Maitre Peronilla.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pépito (opera)” is opera by Jacques Offenbach. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pépito, opera and Jacques, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “opera by Jacques Offenbach” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q3926120. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1853, 1825, 1856 and 1857.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Pépito (opera) primary sources, Pépito (opera) archive and Pépito research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Pépito (opera)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.