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INSANE BUFFOONERY
GEORGE COLERICK investigates
the musicals of Florimond Hervé,
a man of many parts
During the 1880s, a variety of extraordinary reports emerged concerning the goings-on at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, one of which was of considerable social concern, others relating to pure frivolity.
In April 1884, the magazine Era described the stage performance of the Brothers Tacchi. Whilst the one sang with guitar, the other appeared to have swallowed a bassoon which continued to play internally. A hilarious novelty, but was it not incongruous in a quasi-operatic presentation of courtly events in pre-medieval France, with an enchanted forest, Gothic camp and 'electric ballet' of fifty Amazons?..
Copyright © 26 December 2018 George Colerick,
London UK
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