Jacques Offenbach
A Dinner Party with Italians

In his A Dinner Party with Italians, Offenbach, a joker, parodied the style and devices of the bel canto opera. And there is a purpose in that. By a strange quirk of fate a loving couple and the girl’s father, who is constantly trying to intervene with their happiness, have to perform the roles of touring Italian singers. But it is this fraud 'Italian' concert that helps to fill in the generation gap and to unite the loving hearts. The operetta is full of funny situations, disguises and trickery.

Gennady Shaposhnikov, director of the A Dinner Party with Italians production:

“Inviting guests for a festive performance by Italian singers and a dinner party is just an excuse for M. Choufleuri to show off his daughter. And the Italian singers were supposed to be the main decoy to attract potential husbands.
Victor Gerasimenko, the set and costume designer of the production, and I have decided to use the already existing sets of the Gianni Schicchi production. It is just that another story fits very well in the interesting and functional box set. And that story is A Dinner Party with Italians. But the interior design and costumes will be different. All changes are justified by the position of the main character M. Choufleuri, a bourgeois gentleman”.