Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’etoile, his first opera, was written for Jacques Offenbach’s Bouffes Parisiennes and premiered there in late 1877. It’s a great comic score joined to a funny libretto.
The relatively new kids in town, the Opera Academy of California are finishing a run of performances of the work this weekend out at Fort Mason’s Magic Theater. If you’ve never seen or heard the piece, it’s worth the trouble to seek it out.