Opéra Louisiane is presenting a special performance of Lee Hoiby’s comic one-act opera Bon Appétit! on Friday, September 9 at 7pm at Juban’s restaurant. This delicious opera is a comedic take on a classic episode of Child’s popular television show – set to music! The flamboyant master chef, Julia Child teaches the makings of a classic French chocolate cake – Le Gâteau au Chocolat L’Éminence Brune. 

 

Bon Appetit! Will be paired with Leonard Bernstein’s  The Four Recipes. The songs are recipes from the 1899 French cookery book La Bonne Cuisine Française by Emile Dumont. Bernstein owned the book for many years, translated the recipes into English, and set them to music. 

 

In Opéra Louisiane’s clever staging the soprano singing the song cycle will attempt to cook these intricate dishes and fail miserably, only to turn on the television to watch Julia Child bake an extraordinary cake that she epically fails to replicate.