This opera features a giant papier-mâché Tabasco bottle and the verse “Turn out the town, boys drink it down, hail to the Peer of Tabasco”.
It’s about an Irishman, Dennis O’Grady, who gets lost at sea and ends up in Tangier, Morocco.
There, he is forced to become a chef for a Pasha who loves spicy food.
And he’s got to come up with a spicy meal.
A blind beggar sells him a mysterious liquid that turns out to be – Tabasco.
And sure enough, the Tabasco sauce saves the day.
Young cadets built funds by staging comic operas.
In a scenario straight from a comic opera, young cadets raised funds for an armory….by staging comic operas.
“The Burlesque Opera of Tabasco” was praised in 1894 for the shaven legs of the harem girl-playing cadets.
The tale of love, violence, and pepper sauce in a distant land, was a smash hit.
Tabasco inventor Edmund McIllheny gave permission to continue doing the opera.
The caveat – mini bottles of the sauce must be distributed to audience members!
For the first time, the company produced mini bottles of Tabasco.
These popular bottles now account for nearly half of the brand’s total annual sales.
After a legal battle over earnings, the opera composer locked the score in a box for decades.
It was re-discovered and revived by conductor Paul Mauffray six years ago.
Hot.
